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The Denel AH-2 Rooivalk

The Denel Aviation AH-2 Rooivalk is a modern attack helicopter manufactured by Denel Aerospace Systems of South Africa. Rooivalk is Afrikaans for "Red Kestrel".^[1]

The South African Air Force (SAAF) has ordered 12 Rooivalk AH-2As, the first of which entered service in July 1999. The helicopters are flown by 16 Squadron, which is based at AFB Bloemspruit near Bloemfontein.

Development

The Atlas XH-1 Alpha was developed from an Alouette III airframe, retaining that helicopter's engine and dynamic components, but replacing the original cockpit with a stepped tandem one, adding a 20mm cannon on the nose and converting the undercarriage to tail-dragger configuration. The XH-1 first flew on February 3 1985. The results were ultimately good enough to convince Atlas and the South African Air Force to go ahead with the development of a dedicated attack helicopter - the AH-2 Rooivalk.

During the AH-2's development it was decided to base its dynamic components on those of the Aérospatiale Puma, a larger and more powerful helicopter, also used by the SAAF and built by Atlas as the Oryx.

Design

Due to the SAAF's decades of helicopter experience in the harsh African environment, the Rooivalk has been designed to operate in very basic surroundings for prolonged periods without sophisticated support. All that is needed to keep the Rooivalk flying is a medium transport helicopter equipped with a basic spares supply plus four groundcrew.

Notable features include a tandem cockpit, starboard tail rotor with a port tail plane, and a fixed wheeled undercarriage.

Missions

The following types of missions are foreseen for the AH-2 Rooivalk:

• Reconnaissance
• Heliborne escort
• Close air support
• Deep penetration
• Anti-armour

Operational service

By April 2005, only six of the 12 aircraft were operational with the others in need of software upgrades. The South African Air Force Chief hoped that the helicopters would be ready around June 2007, indicating the "extremely worrying factor of time that the project was taking to reach maturity", attributing the delays to the exodus of personnel from Denel as well as its financial problems. This has forced the nation's air force to assess alternative defense development partners^[2].

End of the Rooivalk

On 17 May 2007, Denel group CEO Shaun Liebenberg announced a decision^[3] to cease development and funding for the Rooivalk following its failure to win the Turkey's attack helicopter tender^[4] against the Agusta A129 Mangusta. The Government of South Africa will decide at a later stage on the fate of the 12 existing units in SAAF service.

Operators

•  South Africa: South African Air Force

Specifications

General characteristics

• Crew: 2 (pilot & weapon systems officer)
• Length: 18,73 m (main rotor to tail rotor); 16.39 m fuselage ()
• Rotor diameter: 15.58 m ()
• Height: 5.19 m ()
• Empty weight: 5,190 kg ()
• Max takeoff weight: 8,750 kg (19,290 lb)

• Internal fuel capacity: 1,469 kg)

• Powerplant: 2× Turbomeca Makila 1K2 turboshafts, 1,716 kW (sea-level ISA) () each

Performance

• Maximum speed: 309 km/h (193 mph)
• Range: 700 km combat; 1,130 km ferry (440 mi / 700 mi)
• Service ceiling: 6,000 m (20,000 ft)
• Rate of climb: 13.3 m/s (2,105 ft/min)
• Disc loading: lb/ft² (kg/m²)
• Power/mass: hp/lb (kW/kg)

Armament

• 1 x F2 20 mm cannon, 700 rounds
• 8 or 16 x Mokopa ZT-6 long-range anti-tank guided missiles (ATGM),
• 4 x MBDA Mistral air-to-air missiles,
• 36 or 72 x 70 mm folding fin aerial rockets (FFAR)