China is developing a dual-strand approach to developing attack helicopters for the People's Liberation Army as part of long-standing plans to create an aviation corps with the size and capabilities to support large ground forces.
Details emerging from China reveal a heavily modified version of the Harbin Z-9 - which started life as a AS365 Dauphin co-production programme with Eurocopter in the mid-1980s - as well as another machine that resembles the Eurocopter Tiger. Armed versions of the Z-9 have also been developed.
The Z-9-derived attack helicopter has a tandem twin-seat fuselage combined with a larger fenestron and tail as well as a new dynamic system.
The helicopter is also equipped with a nose-mounted sensor, likely to be an electro-optical system combining infrared and television sensors with a laser designator, although a radar cannot be ruled out.
Weapons are mounted on stub wings. Unlike other attack helicopters, the machine does not appear to be equipped with a nose-mounted cannon.
The other attack helicopter emerging from the shadows is often referred to as the Z-10, although this designation is also sometimes applied to a transport machine being developed by Chinese Helicopter Research and Development Institute (CHRDI) with assistance from AgustaWestland and Eurocopter.
The Z-10 attack helicopter is a 5,500kg (12,000lb) -class, twin-engined machine, reportedly influenced by the Eurocopter Tiger.
This is supported by photographic evidence showing a number of similarities in fuselage shape and weapons carriage configuration, which replicates the Tiger's boxed missile system.
CHRDI is believed to have had access to other attack helicopters marketed in China, including South Africa's Denel Rooivalk, and Russia's Mil Mi-35 Hind and Kamov Ka-50.
Source: Flight International
