Q: Gazelle variants

[Bozon]

Trying out the Gazelle this week. I have little experience with heli-sims, but I always liked the Gazelle and it is a pretty bird so I decided to give it a go. A couple of questions please if someone can be bothered to answer.

Q1: what is the point of the door gunner variant? It has no optics so it is not a good scout. It “wastes” 1 seat out of the 3 in the back on the gunner, so it is inefficient at delivering asses (3 crew for 2 passengers?). What was it used for in real life?

Q2: Mistral Gazelle - was this thing real? Some air force was flying an “air superiority” chopper? At least it has the day-optics so it can scout, but as a scout you are much more likely to find ground targets of opportunity (L/M models do fine) than multiple enemy choppers where you’ll need 4 Mistrals. A mixed payload would have made more sense (Mistral+HOT, Mistral+rockets?). So, was this used in real life?

Q3: The exhaust heat shield. Does it protect you at all? Makes IR missiles harder to lock on to you? Do you lose engine power when it is installed?

Thanks.

[Ramsay]

3 hours ago, Bozon said:

Q1: what is the point of the door gunner variant? It has no optics so it is not a good scout. It “wastes” 1 seat out of the 3 in the back on the gunner, so it is inefficient at delivering asses (3 crew for 2 passengers?). What was it used for in real life?

Mini-gun variant = Special forces variant to provide suppressive fire (at night ?)

Facebook video from Armée de Terre https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=281867828964985

Google Translate (for those who don't like Facebook)

"Groupement Aéromobilité de la Section Technique de l’Armée de Terre added 26 new photos.
25 July at 07:00 · 
You picked up the picture of the gazelle with the machine gun. Here are some additional elements on the work done by le.
To respond to a need expressed by the 4th rhfs, Airbus has integrated a mitrailleuse machine gun in port from the gazelle helicopter.
This 6-Gauge Rotary machine gun has a firing rate of 3000 strokes per minute.
After an evaluation of the implementation (ground and flight in Valencia areas) and the maintenance of this new weapons system, the brand team organized, in collaboration with the 4th rhfs, a campaign From Sunday 5 to Friday, 10 February 2017, on the site of captieux.
This campaign allowed:
Evaluate the implementation of day and night gatling with jvn;
Validate coordination within the crew and associated employment procedures;
Define the safety rules related to the use of this weapon;
To validate the different firing configurations.
The ten shooting sequences (seven days and three nights, 30 rounds fired) were carried out without incident."

 

3 hours ago, Bozon said:

Q2: Mistral Gazelle - was this thing real? Some air force was flying an “air superiority” chopper? At least it has the day-optics so it can scout, but as a scout you are much more likely to find ground targets of opportunity (L/M models do fine) than multiple enemy choppers where you’ll need 4 Mistrals. A mixed payload would have made more sense (Mistral+HOT, Mistral+rockets?). So, was this used in real life?

Mistral variant = a real thing, works with teams of other helicopters to provide self-defence against other helicopters, etc.

There's documentation of M's and L's working in groups for Desert Storm (1991) with a special forces CSAR transport helicopter providing support.

Four French Gazelles were equipped with Mistrals by Matra for the Gulf War. They never fired in anger. The Mistral Gazelle officially entered French service in 1996 after 9 years of development.  https://www.flightglobal.com/mistral-armed-gazelles-enter-french-service/6585.article

Photographic walk-around of a Gazelle Mistral http://www.primeportal.net/hangar/ulrich_wrede/sa342l1_gazelle_fr/

 

3 hours ago, Bozon said:

Q3: The exhaust heat shield. Does it protect you at all? Makes IR missiles harder to lock on to you?

IRL = Yes, in DCS = not AFAIK. For ED's helicopters it's a Mission Editor option (rather than loadout change) and changes the IR signature (fitting Mi-8 suppressor 0.5 --> 0.3). The small, single engine Gazelle already has a low IR value in DCS (0.2).

 

3 hours ago, Bozon said:

Do you lose engine power when it is installed

IIRC, the dev(s) said the DCS exhaust heat shield reduces power, as well as adding extra weight.

Edited January 31, 2022 by Ramsay

[Bozon]

@Ramsay, thanks for the detailed answer.
I still think that the door gunner and all Mistrals, are silly ideas in real life, but that’s just me. In game it could be fun to hunt other helis.

[xfirf]

I would also like to see more weapons available as in reality.