Future of Rooivalk

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13 years 4 months

Posts: 300

There is an interesting link in the news thread about the possibility of the Denel Rooivalk attack helicopter production to be restarted.

http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/amid-rooivalk-restart-talks-denel-eyes-new-platform-403763/

One of the options is to design a new platform based on the technology of the Rooivalk.

As the Rooivalk itself is heavily based on the Puma/Oryx helicopter, maybe it would interest joint-development for parties such as:

a) South Korea? the KAI KUH-1 Surion is also baed on the Puma. Maybe they would be interested in developing an attack heli based on the rooivalk with the powertrain of the Surion?

b) Indonesia? PTDI has a lot of experience with the puma/super puma and builds parts for airbus helicopters.

c) Brazil? Helibras?

would love to see a modernized rooivalk flown...

Original post

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16 years 5 months

Posts: 305

What about a version of the Rooivalk with Millimetre Wave radar guided missiles? since MMW radar seems to be all the rage these days, and it would help the export potential of the Rooivalk.

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11 years 4 months

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For a moment I thought you were speaking about me

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19 years 3 months

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double post

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19 years 3 months

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What about a version of the Rooivalk with Millimetre Wave radar guided missiles? since MMW radar seems to be all the rage these days, and it would help the export potential of the Rooivalk.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mokopa

After the US refusing to release the Hellfire for integration on the Rooivalk during the British attack helicopter competition, Mokopa was developed.
It comes in MMW format too.

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[ATTACH=CONFIG]231965[/ATTACH]

Rooivalks potential for sales are/were not performance based.
They are political.

When in competition with the Tiger, a European engine manufacturer suddenly started making statements about not supporting it's engines if Rooivalk won.
Add the US missile refusal above, and various behind-the-scenes shenanigans in other competitions.

You can have the best platform in the world, but it counts for nothing when related industries are reigned in for political reasons and used as bidding tool weapons. This applies to any platform.

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13 years 3 months

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I don't think that it'll be possible to re-start the Rooivalk production line or go for a new platform (which isn't a cheap exercise) without a firm commitment from a customer. And the SAAF certainly doesn't seem to have the need or the funding for a large scale purchase of new Rooivalks or a newer platform to be able to justify Denel sinking money into a new program. As it is, last I heard, they were struggling to support the dozen or so Rooivalks they actually purchased.

Is there any export customer out there who might be interested in a joint program? South Korea is a possibility but Eurocopter has the firm lead there what with having been the partner on the Surion. And even then, the attack helicopter for the SoKo armed forces isn't an out and out gunship but rather a hybrid with the ability to carry troops as well. Not exactly what the Rooivalk can do.

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19 years 3 months

Posts: 1,620

The reason for the renewed interest was the Rooivalks performance during its first deployment and combat, in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Previously, Hinds had been used by the UN, but the Rooivalk came in and deployed on March 1st of this year, and basically smashed the rebels with pinpoint accuracy, leading to the UN head of MONUSCO, Martin Kobler, giving very high praise about the immediate results.

Member for

13 years 5 months

Posts: 3,381

^ Good info, thanks.

As the OP suggested, Brazil and Indonesia or would seem to be the best candidates, and ofc. there's already cooperation between Brazil and South Africa on e.g. A-Darter.

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18 years 9 months

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Brazil has ordered Mi-35.

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13 years 5 months

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Brazil has ordered Mi-35.

They can buy more than one type if there is a good enough case to do so from an industrial development perspective. Lower operating costs for the smaller platform too. I doubt they'd have any difficulty shopping the Hinds around if it came to that

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18 years 3 months

Posts: 5,267

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mokopa

After the US refusing to release the Hellfire for integration on the Rooivalk during the British attack helicopter competition, Mokopa was developed.
It comes in MMW format too.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]231964[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]231965[/ATTACH]

Rooivalks potential for sales are/were not performance based.
They are political.

When in competition with the Tiger, a European engine manufacturer suddenly started making statements about not supporting it's engines if Rooivalk won.
Add the US missile refusal above, and various behind-the-scenes shenanigans in other competitions.

You can have the best platform in the world, but it counts for nothing when related industries are reigned in for political reasons and used as bidding tool weapons. This applies to any platform.

I think general anti competitive shenanigans from other parties is only part of the story. The market for attack helicopters both new and used is almost saturated with choices currently. That does make it rather difficult to penetrate the market as it stands, I do wonder in respect of engines if they might of been served to look at some alternate solutions to reduce the issue of sales being blocked by particular parties.

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13 years 5 months

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Chinese WZ16 currently in development?

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16 years

Posts: 353

What's in a name?

What's in a name? Perhaps nothing, or perhaps something...? I can't help but wonder if this airframe would have wider recognition if it had a name with wider appeal? I imagine few outside South Africa know what a Rooivalk is or even how to pronounce it- and it can be even harder for some dialects to pronounce. It is Afrikaans for the bird Red Kestral- but I had to look that up. I understad export was not the origianl goal.

While this may sound bigotted or narrow, I can't help think at major airshows and trade magazines an aircraft with an easy to pronounce and widely recognized name would be easier to remember. A menacing name for an attack chopper can't hurt either.

Kamov seemed to have recognized this with the marketing of the "Black Shark" and the "Alligator". Cobra, and Super Cobra also worked.

Typhoon, Hurricane, Viper, Lightning, Cobra, etc seem to have common recogntion in many languages, while other names have a much narrower recogntion. Kestral is more known than Rooivalk. An analogy might be calling something a common lancehead, after a local snake- folks outside the region would ask "what the heck is a Lancehead"??? Oh it's a Viper???? Everyone knows what a viper is, and know you don't want to mess with it...

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13 years 5 months

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Perhaps this is Rafale's problem also. ;)

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13 years 7 months

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Rooivalk has been developed in the last period of the Apartheid time, specifically because no attack helicopter would have been sell to South Africa.

The opposite is true too, nobody would have procured an attack helicopter from South Africa.

Born to defeat an embargo, it had from start near zero chance to sell abroad.

A new project today could have some chance when conceived as a concertated effort between some countries sharing common requirements.

Member for

16 years 5 months

Posts: 305

A shame that politics got in the way of Rooivalk, lets hope that a successor design will be more successful in the future.