US AH-60L Battle Hawk attack helicopters to be armed with suicide drones.

According to a tweet from Caesar broadcasting a video released by the U.S. Army and DEVCOM, in the future, the American AH-60L Battle Hawk attack helicopter will assist the M142 HIMARS MLRS in destroying the enemy air defense system with suicide drones instead of the Hellfire ATGM as their main weapon.

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AH-60L Battle Hawk firing suicide drones to destroy enemy air defense systems (Picture source: print screen of U.S. Army/DEVCOM video)

As described by Global Security, the AH-60L Battle Hawk main weapon is a 20mm turreted gun. Its location under the cabin provides a rugged, simple integration. The gun can be slaved to the Elbit Systems Helmet Mounted Display (HMD) cueing, or to the Elbit Systems Toplite II Targeting Sensor Line of Sight. Ammunition is stored in the cabin and fed to the gun through a 90-degree bend, versus up to seven such bends with nose-mounted gun turrets, providing unparalleled accessibility, feed and ease of reloading.

The pylons mounted on this version of the mythical Black Hawk enable the helicopter to fulfill various attack missions, mainly ground support thanks to its AGM-114 Hellfire helicopter-launched fire-and-forget missiles. The video released by the U.S. Army and DEVCOM illustrating a suggested attack does not identify the small suicide drones fired in salvo by the AH-60L Battle Hawk helicopters to assist HIMARS MLRS multiple launch rocket systems in destroying enemy air defense systems but the range imposed by this attack concept must be « precautiously » long to avoid the helicopter being spotted and destroyed by its targets themselves.

M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) execute a live fire during Exercise Saber Strike at Bemoko Piskie, Poland, June 16, 2017. (Picture source: US Army/Markus Rauchenberger)