There are as many armies in the world a there are countries in the world and each of these armies has their own military assets that allow them to be confident in defending their countries against a foreign invasion.
Last time we started a list of expensive military attack helicopters and now we are back with another one. This time the prices of these helicopters are going to blow your mind away because well, you cannot put a price on the security of your country.
Well without any further talking, let’s get on to our list of expensive military helicopters in the world (part 2).
Eurocopter Tiger
The first up on our list today is the Eurocopter Tiger, a single one of which can be bought for a sum of 41 million dollars.
The Eurocopter Tiger is a result of a joint project between the French company named Aérospatiale and a West German company named MBB. The Eurocopter was designed and manufactured by these two as an answer for a response call to the Soviet Union’s military attack helicopter built in the 1980s. The Eurocopter is a helicopter that was versatile in its duties as it could perform the following mission tasks.
- armed reconnaissance
- anti-tank operations
- close air support
The main quality of the Eurocopter is its ability to be versatile in its functioning while being armed with deadly firepower. The helicopter comes with a 13 meter long main rotor and a hull that is narrow in size, allowing it to have better agility than most attack helicopters.
It also allows the Eurocopter to perform full loops midflight as well as negative ‘G’ maneuvers. As for the sped, the Eurocopter is powered by dual Rolls-Royce MTR390 turboshaft engines that give it a maximum flight speed of 187 knots.
Sikorsky Sea Hawk
The Sikorsky Sea Hawk was developed by the Sikorsky as the main helicopter to fulfill the needs of the US Navy for a maritime warfare chopper. The helicopter designed was intended to perform the following roles.
- Search and rescue missions
- A chopper with large enough space to carry and transport Navy equipment of large quantities
Mainly the Sikorsky Sea Hawk is used by US Navy for transportation of the MK series torpedoes. As for its secondary role, it used in combat search & rescue missions as well as evacuations.
With its large size and its advanced systems, the Sikorsky Sea Hawk is one of the most expensive helicopters in the world.
NH-90
The NH-90 was developed as a joint project between many of the European aviation companies and comes with a huge price tag of 50 million dollars. The NH-90 was ultimately put up for export to other world militaries as well due to its versatility in several mission types.
The initial goal with this helicopter was to allow NATO countries to have a surgical strike helicopter that could also deliver the maritime duties.
It was employed for the first time in active service back in 2007 and is the world’s only helicopter that was flown by the Fly By Wire controls. These controls are a system which replaces the normal traditional controls of an aircraft with an electric one.
The NH-90 is currently serving the 13 different militaries across the planet in 2 variants which are as follows.
- A Tactical Transport Helicopter (TTH) serving the army
- A Maritime variant named as the NATO Frigate Helicopter (NFH)
Boeing V22 Osprey
The Boeing V22 Osprey is a helicopter that is in a class of its own and also comes with a price that cannot be rivaled by many helicopters in the world. The price of a single Boeing V22 Osprey is nearly 72 million dollars.
The first Boeing V22 Osprey was deployed in active military service back in 2007 and is currently operated mainly by the US Army’s Marine Corps. It is also the very first of the tilt-rotor military helicopter. The design of the Boeing V22 Osprey was made in this way to allow it to have quick VTOL (Vertical Takeoff and landing).
The initial runaways cost of the helicopter made it an infamous one as the initial project price which was at 2.6 billion dollars back in 1986 soared to a sum of mind-boggling 30 billion dollars in mere two years in 1988.
The main tactical demands that contributed in the expansion of the helicopter project price were the demands by the US Navy for the helicopter to have foldable wings in order for it to be stowed away easily on aircraft carriers.
Sikorsky CH-53K King Stallion
The first place to being the most expensive military helicopter in the world goes to none other than the beast of a machine Sikorsky CH-53K King Stallion which comes at a whopping price of 95 million dollars.
The Sikorsky CH-53K King Stallion currently only serves the US Army’s Marine Corps as their heavy-duty transport helicopter which was developed in order to replace the aging Super Stallion.
This state of the art transport helicopter takes the transpiration of military equipment and personnel to a whole another level in terms of both efficiency and scale size. The length of a single Sikorsky CH-53K King Stallion is about 99 feet with its height being 27 feet along with being equipped with a large size cargo hull. For comparison, this much of a pace allows the Sikorsky CH-53K King Stallion to easily fit inside a fully armored Military Humvee.
As for power to fly at a speed of 170 knots, the helicopter is dependent upon its twin General Electric T408 engines, each of which has a 7500 HP.
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