TIGER

The Tiger helicopter is being developed in two configurations, an antitank helicopter and a combat support helicopter, by the international Eurocopter company and funded by Germany and France.

The requirements for the Tiger anti-tank helicopter are the identification and engagement of ground targets by day and night to ranges exceeding 5 km, low detectability, and a self-defence capability.

Tiger has a mast-mounted sight with infra-red charge coupled device (IRCCD) camera and laser rangefinder. The displays in the cockpit are four colour with a digital map and two helmet mounted sights and displays. There is a nose-mounted forward looking infra-red (FLIR) with a 40 x 30 degree field of view. The German version of Tiger is equipped with a GEC-Marconi Avionics integrated Day and Night Helmet.

The French Tigre helicopter has a helmet mounted sight from Sextant Aviaonique for both crew stations, and a head up display from Sextant Avionique for the pilot.

Tiger can be equipped with four MISTRAL or four Stinger air-to-air missiles. The air-to-air missile control functions are on the flight control grip. Target acquisition is achieved by using the joystick to steer the sight manually or with automatic tracking. The FIM-92 Stinger missile, produced by Hughes and under licence by Dornier GmbH, is equipped with a 1 kg warhead and range up to 5 kilometres. The Mistral missile is manufactured by Matra Bae Dynamics. It is equipped with a 3 kg warhead. Range is 6 kilometres.

The Tiger is armed with HOT and TRIGAT LR anti-tank missiles. The anti-tank missiles are used by the gunner Only one weapon is activated at a time. The TRIGAT LR missile has been developed by the Euromissile consortium, funded by the UK and Germany. Range is 500 metres to 5000 metres. The firing rate for salvo firing is quoted as up to four missiles in eight seconds. TRIGAT LR can be applied in direct attack or terminal dive attack modes.

The HOT missile is a short to medium range missile developed by Euromissile. Range is up to 4000 metres.

In its combat support role the Tiger uses a gun for short range engagements and 68 millimetre rockets at medium and long range. It can be equipped with Mistral missiles to engage airborne threats.

The helicopter is equipped with a turreted 30mm gun together with either four Mistral missiles, 44 rockets plus 4 Mistral missiles, or 68 rockets. Only one weapon can be activated at a time.

The Combat Support Tiger has a roof-mounted sight with a gyrostabilised platform, infrared camera, charge coupled device television camera (CCD TV), laser rangefinder and direct optical sight. The combat support Tiger helicopter for the French Army (Tigre HAP) is equipped with a 30 mm AM-30781 automatic cannon from Giat. Rate of fire is 750 rounds per minute. The Tigre HAP also carries four Mistral missiles and two pods each carrying twenty two SNEB 68 mm rockets. It can alternatively carry an additional two pods each carrying 12 rockets in place of the four Mistral missiles.

In order to minimise the weight approximately 80% of the airframe has been constructed of composite materials. The frames and beams have been fabricated from Kevlar and carbon laminates. Panels are composed of Nomex honeycomb material with carbon and Kevlar skins. The helicopter blades are of fibre-composite construction. Radar reflective structures and surfaces have been minimised. Low infra-red reflection paints have been used and an IR suppressor has been fitted to the engine exhaust.

The self-sealing tanks are equipped with an inert gas system to avoid the danger of an explosive fuel vapour and air mix. the engines are separated by armour plate to prevent the loss of both engines in the event of a single direction hit. The helicopter has nuclear, biological and chemical warfare (NBC) and nuclear electromagnetic pulse protection.

The Automatic Flight Control System, AFCS, consists of two redundant digital computers which control attitude hold, heading hold, capture and hold of altitude, hold of doppler hover, hold of hover height as determined by radar altimeter, capture and hold of line of sight, hold of vertical speed, the navigation mode and gun firing compensation.

Each crew station is equipped with a Control and Display Unit, CDU. Navigation, communications, and system status are controlled via the CDU. The CDU consists of a display, an array of mode selection and data entry keys, and a Data Insertion Device (DID). The DID is a removable memory pack preprogrammed with mission data at a ground station.

The navigation system contains two three-axis ring laser gyro units from Sextant Avionique, two magnetometers, two air data computers, a four-beam Doppler radar CMA 2012 from Canadian Marconi, a radio altimeter, a global positioning system and a suite of low air speed sensors.

Each cockpit is equipped with two multi-function colour displays supplied by Sextant Avionique and VDO Luftfahrtgerate Werk GmbH, which display imagery from the gunnerÕs sight, the Forward Looking Infra-Red (FLIR) sight, and video image from the digital map generator which is supplied by Dornier and VDO.

SPECIFICATION TIGER
Design mission weight	5400 kilograms
Alternate gross weight	6000 kilograms
Length	14 metres
Height	3.81 metres
Wing span	13 metres
Hover out of ground effect (OGE)	3200 metres, anti-tank version
	3500 metres, combat support version
Vertifcal rate of climb	5.2 metres, per sec, anti-tank version
	6.4 metres per sec, combat support version.
Maximum rate of climb	10.7 metres per sec, anti-tank version
	11.5 metres per sec, combat support version
Flight speed, armed	145 knots, anti-tank version
	155 knots, combat support version
Cruise speed	124 knots
Design limit speed	161 knots, anti-tank version
	174 knots, combat support version
Maximum range, internal fuel	800 km
Mission endurance	2 hours 50 minutes
Maximum endurance, internal fuel	3 hours 25 minutes
Agility	40 degree angle of yaw after first second
Trigat missile range	500 metres to 5 kilometres
Maximum air to air missile range	> 5 kilometres Maximum autonomous
Target identification and engagement	5 kilometres
Maximum internal fuel capacity	1020 kilograms
Maximum internal plus external fuel capacity	1575 kilograms