Fred J. McCall wrote:

Hint #2: Helos are too slow to deal with even a slow UAV. The
leading edge of the rotor goes transonic at relatively slow forward
speeds.

UAVs vary a lot in speed - this article
http://www.armscontrol.ru/UAV/mirsad1.htm concerning a UAV flight over
Israel, has some data which shows that some of them fly as slow as 75
mph. The Swiss Ranger, which seems typical, is quoted as flying at
between 55 and 130 knots. These would certainly be within the
capabilities of a helo to catch.

Hint #3: A fighter with a 20mm Vulcan will flat mess up a "small,
slow UAV" and actually has a radar on board so that he can see it and
some actual training on how to do an air intercept, neither of which a
helicopter has.

Always assuming that the radar is capable of getting a lock on the UAV.
If not, his chance of scoring a hit is remote - the speed differential
is so huge that he could do no more than 'spray and pray'.

:until
:something more sophisticated can be developed.

It doesn't take anything "sophisticated" to deal with this threat. If
it's really small and really slow, just blow past it in the mach and
let the shockwave trash it.

That might do the trick, as long as you've got air support handy (not
all warhips are aircraft carriers, or have one on call).

The basic problem is that naval self-defence systems are designed to
deal with large, fast objects which produce a nice big radar echo. We
know that they have problems picking up stealth planes - that's the
whole point of stealth planes, after all - so it is obvious that
they're going to have a hell of a lot more problems dealing with a very
much smaller and inherently stealthy object. I don't doubt they will
eventually find a means of coping with them, but that's probably years
away - and the threat exists now.

Note that according to the website above concerning the half-hour
terrorist flight over Israel "the Israeli army could also do nothing to
shut down the plane though they observed the entire flight over their
territory."

The situation is analogous to that posed by the first Russian anti-ship
missile, the Styx. It was around for years and no-one took much notice
until one sank an Israeli destroyer in 1967 - then the USN woke up to
the need for a short-range defence system, and Phalanx was the eventual
answer.

Tony Williams
Military gun and ammunition website: http://www.quarry.nildram.co.uk