HESA Shahed 285 () is a light attack/reconnaissance helicopter developed in

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

. It was unveiled on . It is being produced in two versions: a light attack/recon version and a maritime patrol/anti-ship version.

Design and development

The Shahed 285 is based on the composite '' Shahed-278'', which is a relatively light helicopter with empty weight, derived from the

Bell 206 The Bell 206 is a family of two-bladed, single- and twin-engined helicopters, manufactured by Bell Helicopter at its Mirabel, Quebec, plant. Originally developed as the Bell YOH-4 for the United States Army's Light Observation Helicopter progr ...

Jetranger. Compared to the American

OH-58 Kiowa The Bell OH-58 Kiowa is a family of single-engine single-rotor military helicopters used for observation, utility, and direct fire support. It was produced by the American manufacturer Bell Helicopter and is closely related to the Model 206A ...

that retains the airframe of the Bell 206, the Shahed 285 is a single-seater with a narrower fuselage, but retains the tail and powerplant/rotor structures, and is intended for military use. Although designed by the

IRGC The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), also known as the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, is a multi-service primary branch of the Iranian Armed Forces. It was officially established by Ruhollah Khomeini as a military branch in May 1979 i ...

, this helicopter is scheduled to be produced by HESA. Shahed 285 comes in two variants. AH-85A which is a land based variant and AH-85C which is a naval one. AH-85A is armed with 14 rockets and a

PKMT The PK (, transliterated as ''Pulemyot Kalashnikova'', or "Kalashnikov's machine gun"), is a belt-fed general-purpose machine gun, chambered for the 7.62×54mmR rimmed cartridge. The modernized and most commonly known variant, known as the PKM ...

light machine gun either on a rotatable turret or on a static mount, or an NSV heavy machine gun in an underfuselage gondola (latest version). It also uses an EO/IR camera on its top. Instead of the machine gun, AH-85C has a search and track radar on its chin to find and track enemy ships. Its range is estimated between . It either uses two

Kowsar The YJ-7 () is a Chinese subsonic anti-ship missile. It is manufactured by the Third Academy of the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC).Gormley et al.: page 18 The export version of the YJ-7 is the C-701.Gormley et al.: page ...

or eight Sadid-1

anti-ship missile An anti-ship missile (AShM or ASM) is a guided missile that is designed for use against ships and large boats. Most anti-ship missiles are of the sea-skimming variety, and many use a combination of inertial guidance and active radar homing. ...

s. To fire these missiles, AH-85C relies on a

Multi-function display A multifunction display (MFD) is a small-screen (CRT or LCD) surrounded by multiple soft keys (configurable buttons) that can be used to display information to the user in numerous configurable ways. MFDs originated in aviation, first in mili ...

in its cockpit.

Specifications (Shahed 285 / AH-85A)

References

External links

Military Factory
{{Weapons of Iran 2000s Iranian helicopters 2000s Iranian military utility aircraft Shahed 285 Military helicopters Iranian helicopters Post–Cold War military equipment of Iran Iranian military aircraft Aircraft first flown in 2009 Attack helicopters

Design and development

Specifications (Shahed 285 / AH-85A)

See also

References

External links