Empire Conquest-Chapter 757 - 51: The Low Altitude Hegemon

It had only been about 10 minutes, and the six "Z-10A" helicopters led by Lian Mingyang had used up all their carried rockets.

In the enemy’s armored group, there were not only tanks but also a large number of infantry fighting vehicles and other armored vehicles.

Fearing attacks from high-altitude guns and air defense missiles, Lian Mingyang and his team hovered on the perimeter without getting close to the armor cluster.

However, this situation did not last long.

"Boss, ten o’clock direction!"

"Saw it!"

As Jiang Shanggui shouted out, Lian Mingyang had already maneuvered the helicopter to the right and released interference bombs from the tail beam.

They were two missiles, shot from the left side.

From the trajectory, it was very likely that a helicopter had launched the missiles, rather than infantry on the ground.

Only, the helicopter was several kilometers away.

Lian Mingyang’s judgment was immediately confirmed: the incoming attack was indeed from armed helicopters, not just one but more than ten, almost half a squadron.

MI-24 "Hind."

From the tandem cockpit, it was even the later model with improved performance.

Fortunately, the enemy aircraft had launched anti-tank missiles instead of air-to-air missiles!

As Lian Mingyang controlled the "Z-10A" to finish turning, those "Hinds" had already entered his field of vision, and the other "Z-10A"s in the squadron had also finished turning.

"Boss, the brothers are all here," Jiang Shanggui said, monitoring both the enemy and his allies’ movements.

"Everyone’s ready, take out those ’Hinds’ by squads. Swallow 02, follow me!"

"Swallow 02 received, I’m behind you."

Lian Mingyang quickly looked back while pushing the throttle to the max.

In front, Jiang Shanggui had already adjusted the fire control channel and maneuvered the machine gun in all directions for a round to confirm the weapon system was operational.

Of course, the key was the choice of ammunition.

The "Z-10A’s" 30mm light machine gun utilized a bidirectional feeding system, mainly firing armor-piercing bullets against armored targets and high-explosive bombs against unarmored targets, so the weapons operator needed to select the appropriate ammunition before firing, based on the target.

The incoming armed helicopters could only be considered as unarmored targets.

The "Hind" was much larger than the "Z-10A", for instance, its fuselage nearing 19 meters in length and the rotor diameter exceeding 17 meters, but its takeoff weight was not much different from the "Z-10A", with both being 10-tonne-class heavy armored helicopters. Because of its size, it had a larger area to protect, and thus, with similar takeoff weights, the "Hind’s" armor protection was actually inferior to the "Z-10A."

In fact, the "Hind" was designed as a multi-purpose helicopter.

Besides having attack capabilities, the "Hind" also had a compartment that could carry a number of infantry.

That’s why it had the size comparable to a general-purpose helicopter.

In terms of performance, it was more or less at the same level as the "Z-7" series.

During the Iran-Iraq War, Iraq’s "Hinds" engaged with Boi Country’s "Cobras" dozens of times; although they performed slightly better, they weren’t overwhelmingly stronger, leveling on basically the same standard, and "Cobras," along with the "Z-7," were considered first-generation light armed helicopters.

The "Z-7" evolved in the latter stages with the Army’s "Z-7W" and the Marine Corps’ "Z-7T," through comprehensive improvements, such as installing twin engines, using a four-blade main rotor, switching to a 30mm machine gun, and enhancing protection at critical points, rising to a 10-tonne-class heavy armed helicopter.

Unfortunately, due to the cost-performance ratio not being high, both the "Z-7W" and "Z-7T" were not widely equipped.

Compared with the "Z-10A," the shortcomings of the "Hind" were quite clear.

For example, the attacking MI-24Vs mounted a quad-barreled 12.7mm Gatling gun under their noses!

This setup was standard 15 years ago, matching the earlier models of the "Z-7."

"Jiang Shanggui, open fire quickly!"

A few kilometers was actually just a matter of seconds for two teams of helicopters flying directly towards each other.

Of course, one definitely couldn’t wait until they were close to start firing.

Interestingly, it was the "Hinds" that fired first.

At about 2,000 meters away, the leading "Hind" utilized its Gatling gun and also employed the rockets mounted under its stub wings.

However, the rockets had almost no accuracy when firing into the air.

As for the machine gun bullets, apart from making a scary "rat-a-tat" noise when hitting the fuselage, they did not cause any other severe consequences.

Still, the sound of being hit by bullets was indeed frightening, especially since a few bullets hit the bulletproof glass right in front of the cockpit.

Otherwise, Lian Mingyang wouldn’t have reminded Jiang Shanggui to fire.

Jiang Shanggui delayed only for less than two seconds.

Actually, he wasn’t intentionally delaying; the fire control system needed time to lock onto the target and control the machine gun to aim at the target.

The 30mm machine gun was mounted on a turret, and the aiming method was different from a fighter’s cannon.

"Boom boom boom—"

When the 30mm machine gun fired, the entire "Z-10A" trembled.

To use it on armed helicopters, the 30mm machine gun had not only adopted a lightweight design but also reduced the fire rate from 600 rounds per minute on the vehicle-mounted version to 450 rounds per minute in order to lower the recoil. Even so, the recoil of this machine gun was still astonishingly strong.

In the blink of an eye, the leading "Hind" was blasted into a ball of fire.

In this world, no helicopter could withstand a direct attack from a 30mm cannon round.