Literally anything hits the tail rotor and it’s a spinning brick. .308, a drone, steel cable, Kevlar nets, whatever. Those things are hovering death traps
Not necessarily. If they start taking any small arms fire I expect they’ll leave. 5.56 could crack the windscreen or injure the occupants. A bigger round would be more effective if you actually want to hit the engine or transmission and actually take it down, yes. You could probably do it with anything .300 or larger (7.62 NATO, etc.) if you hit it just right or multiple times. Or yeah go for something big like .50 BMG and hit it once somewhere in the meaty bits. But rifles in .50 are often bigger and more awkward to move around.
The main rotor blades can take a surprising amount of abuse.
I found it even more surprising how much stuff can actually pass between the blades. https://youtu.be/CiDqNRdxTO0
Out of sheer curiosity, what kinds of rounds could feasibly take down a helicopter? Is .50 cal the minimum?
Literally anything hits the tail rotor and it’s a spinning brick. .308, a drone, steel cable, Kevlar nets, whatever. Those things are hovering death traps
Steel bearing from a slingshot even.
Not necessarily. If they start taking any small arms fire I expect they’ll leave. 5.56 could crack the windscreen or injure the occupants. A bigger round would be more effective if you actually want to hit the engine or transmission and actually take it down, yes. You could probably do it with anything .300 or larger (7.62 NATO, etc.) if you hit it just right or multiple times. Or yeah go for something big like .50 BMG and hit it once somewhere in the meaty bits. But rifles in .50 are often bigger and more awkward to move around.
The main rotor blades can take a surprising amount of abuse.
I found it even more surprising how much stuff can actually pass between the blades.
https://youtu.be/CiDqNRdxTO0