The US did not like the Rooivalk sold to their clients.Threatened sanctions. The helmet visor sights was ahead of its time.

South Africa gets put aside a lot but it’s interesting to find out they had the first MRAP designs

This chopper was extensively used in combat support operations in the Congo to great effect. Earned a lot of respect. Hi from 🇿🇦

just had to mention this! It is actually intended for long range missions as it has double the fuel capacity of the Apache whilst only using internal fuel tanks! Also, it is the first AH in the world that can do a full backflip!

The most impressive thing about the rooivalk is that it is considered to be up to modern standards even though it was designed in the 1980's...just shows how much ahead of its time it is/was.

It's just sad that a company like Denel that developed this helicopter is bankrupt due to coruption

As a South African Citizen I want to congratulate your enunciation of the names. Brilliantly said.

The aerial Boer. South African engineering at it's best. I really love South African manufactured designs especially Rooikat AFV, Mbombe AFV, Denel G6, Ratel AFV and on the top tier , The Rooivalk Attack helicopter. what made me to put my interest in South African armaments is the fact that they have a unique approach to best weapons with ingenious ideas. their weapons are ideally suitable to be used in any type of harsh environments of Africa. In my personal opinion Indian army should have purchased more rooivalk helicopters to meet up with the shortages of Apache helicopters. really loving South African tech

Matsimus thank you hello from South Africa

Ah, Neal Ellis... one of the greatest gunship pilots ever! From RhAF- SAAF- EO, USAF consultant. This is the guy who almost single handedly took out the RUF from Sierra Leone with EO! If he had a hand in this, then its probably a damn good platform. Also, I understand that it has very capable anti-armour missiles but larger militaries refused to supply their missiles for this chopper and hence international sales were pretty bad for this bird...

Matsimus Just an interesting factoid about the Rooivalk and the SA defence industry, I was chatting to a rooivalk pilot at Ysterplaat airshow - as you may be aware many of these pieces were indigenously created during apartheid while SA was under trade embargoes, one of the things which came out of this was the original helmet mounted displays. I'm not sure if anyone's aware of that but that was indeed a South African invention, the same as frequency-hopping radio, which is now military standard today. SA is also the only nation in the entire world to have created and dismantled all of its nuclear weapons.

I would like to add some info in connection with the avionics and targeting systems of the Rooivalk. There was some issues raised with avionics age in 2008 and some upgrades followed between 2009 and 2011. Please keep in mind that the Rooivalk development started in 1984 with the first prototype flying in 1990/1991 and the second one (EDM) in 1993. The third prototype followed in around 1996/7 and this was also brought up to the pre-production std. The production order was finally received in 1999 and the production aircraft delivered between 2001 and 2004/5. See this in comparison with the Apache, where most of the C/D versions were already delivered by middle to late 1990. Thus one can see that the Rooivalk utilized military tech from the late 1990’s while the Apache C/D were mostly constructed with military tech from late 80’s and early 90’s. Avionics: The dual cockpits have two large colour multi-function displays. These displays are fully inter-operable thus capable of displaying flight info, navigation data (moving terrain map), mission info and data, target data and video, weapon system info and ordinance status as well as radio and communication info. There is also full thread identification and status displays. These displays are all flat screen colour LCD’s. TDATS: Target detection/acquisition and tracking system - This comprises a fully stabilized optical day camera and FLIR system, incorporating Laser range finder and designator, thus providing full day and night operation capability. This system is mainly controlled by the WSO in the front cockpit although the system can be slaved to the pilot or WSO’s helmet mounted sights. These HMD/S are binocular systems, displaying both flight info, weapon systems and target simbology with TDATS video overlay. The TDATS has target identification and tracking functions and can be used to guide missiles and canon onto the target. Night vision: There is also a separate night vision stabilized sight on the top of the nose of the helicopter and this can also be slaved to pilot’s helmet. This sight’s HD-video imagery is displayed on the pilot’s helmet’s visor super-imposed over the flight simbology. The flight controls are fully HOTAS and there is a digital autopilot with altitude hold, hover hold and nav and heading hold. Both front and back cockpits can fly the aircraft. The communication system is both audio and video data capable. The mission plan can be loaded into the aircraft by means of a cartridge system holding target info, nav info with flight plan with mission set-points and communication info.

Beautiful machine ! And thank you South Africa for the MRAPs ! Saved a lot of lives!

i'm personally fascinated by the south african military their vehicles and combat doctrine are pretty interesting

I love the Rooivalk. Great to see you covering some of the South African war machines.

I worked on the F2 20mm gun assembly, great times what a privilege to be part of this project.

im from south africa thanks for covering this. im very proud of my our military .Unfortunately the standards of our military has dramticaly dropped ,but back in the days it was a formidable force armed with some of the best vehicles and arms in the world,I live in a generation where everyones fathers was drafted into the military for a minimum of 2 years , so we all grew up with war stories of the border war, so thank you again for trying to give our military the recognition it deserves.....ps the rooikat was so good even britain bought them , thus you can find it in war thunder under the british tech tree

May not be the worlds best, but we love our Rooivalk. At the annual airshow this get the biggest cheer next to Gripen.

The Mokopa is primarily for anti-tank warfare. The actual max range is 12km, a lot further than the Hellfire. It is because we keep our equipment low key, people tend to underestimate it.

Not intended for long range missions like the Apache? It has a radius of 740 km, compared to 400 km for the Apache! And it carries an equal number of ATGM's.

Makopa missile has an operational range of 10km intended to allow the Rooivalk to work at extended standoff ranges against tanks, this is why UK wanted to buy Rooivalk but didn't due to US placing sanctions on Denel. The close support role is something only the Rooivalk can do, no other attack heli was designed for this role. Do you know how robust this machine is in order to fullfil this particular role? This chopper can operate for hours and hours in extreme combat environments full of dust and shrapnel. It is almost double the size,weight of the eurocopter tiger, can fly almost 2km higher and carry almost 2 tons more payload. You can't even compare the two platforms it is senseless. Tiger got hyped, one of the worst out there. If you want to compare it compare it to the mi28 havoc and apache.

Thank you from us South Africans. We are indeed proud of this beast.

Rooivalk (red falcon) was built coz of sanctions and we were young engineers and enjoyed great careers in the '80s

South Africans make some nice MRAPs and artillery too. I didn't even realize the South Africans had such nice weapons until recently.

Thanks for featuring the Rooivalk! I am soooo proud to be South African! I really love your reviews!

Nice, inspiring for South Africans to know their country is competent in areas that are relatively advanced technological. I mean if nuclear weapons could be developed and built here, more technological marvels are possible.

Australia seriously considered this helicopter when purchasing the troubled Tiger. Possibly would have been a better choice.

When launched in 1990, this aircraft was surely equal to the Apache of that generation! Development continued throughout the 1980s, and the intial design was based on the Puma, of which South Africa operated en masse. If this aircraft was launched during the 1980s, many more examples would have been built due to the size of the Defence budget at that time. The SADF of the 1970's & 1980s was considered one of the best in the world - the equal of Israel, UK and US (In terms of man for man and equipment comparisons - Obviously could not compete with US Volume...nor could the UK). You might want to do some research into the South African Border War/Angolan Civil War. It was the largest conflict of the Cold War after Vietnam and Afghanistan. South Africa ensured it became Cuba's Vietnam. The equipment designed and built in South Africa during that time period is still amongst the best in the world today - Especially the G5/G6 155 Howitzer, Rooikat AFV, Ratel ICV/AFV, signals equipment as well as a few other things. If you ever research/do vids on Counter-Insurgency and Semi-conventional operations that would be cool. You wouldnt have to look further than the Rhodesian or South African experience. Tactics, Vehicles etc are still revered and learnt from years later.

I do believe that, unlike what was said in the video, Rooivalk has fly-by-wire which allows the pilot and the WOS to be in either cockpit. One of my colleagues was part of the Rooivalk project, while I worked with the Rooivalk design team at Denel on their UAV's propeller as a student.

I am incredibly proud of my people and my country for their innovation and ability to improvise and adapt. It's a tragedy to see how swiftly corruption at the hands of an inept government has turned our country into a weak and sad state of affairs.

South Africa make some of the best weapons and systems I've ever seen.. had a lot of practice in Angola.. with the Cubans

This was actually a good vid on the Rooivalk. fair opinion and well made. Thank you Matsimus. Keep up the good work and greetings from South Africa. We are damn proud of this bird. :)

It's interesting to note that the HMD used on the JAS39 Gripen and Eurofighter Typhoon are developed and manufactured by Denel Optronics, the South African company that originally made them.

You will never believe this but my father was one of the designers of the RooiValk, and he was also involved in testing it

One of the few helicopters that can fly inverted, that is it can do both barrel and victory rolls.

I saw one of these a few weeks ago at Langabaan Weg Airforce Base. The manoeuvrability of it is very impressive when you see it in person.

Matsimus, thank you for admitting you do not know much about the Rooivalk, because that is quite clear. Some basics: 1) Although it has a similar configuration to Tigre and Cobra, it does not mean they are similar in all other aspects. Both Tigre and Cobra are substantially smaller than Rooivalk. The Rooivalk is in the same weight class as the Apache and the Mi-28. 2) When looking at A/T capabilities, why do you "think" the Rooival has very little? It has the capability of carrying up to 16 long range A/T missiles, just like Apache AH64?? Also, the Makopa missile has 2km range advantage on the Helfire. Then look at the 20mm cannon firing high velocity AP-rounds, with more kinetic energy than the 30mm rounds used by Apache and it is also capable of all the other missions Apache can do, with only one difference in that it does not have the mmW-radar. So why do you think it does not have much of an A/T capability? 3) Performance wise, the Rooivalk has a longer operating range than Apache, Mi-28, Tigre and Cobra and can carry as much ordinance as Apache, It has a slightly higher max cruise speed compared to Apache and a substantially better climb rate and max surface ceiling. Thus, this attack helicopter is more capable than most of the attack helicopter in the West, so, certainly not to be sneezed at....

South Africa! Aliens robots! EVERYTHING HAPPENS IN SOUTH AFRICA!

Greetings from Johannesburg South Africa. Please make a video of the G6 Rhino howitzer.

love these southern african/dutch names rooi = red valk= falcon

The South Africans created the first Ambushed Resistant Vehicles also called MRAPs.

Saffa here, very impressed with your pronunciation of rooivalk. Also, Denel is responsible for more than a few pieces of hardware that are class leading. The casspir, g6, ratel, buffel, oliphant,etc just to name a few. Most are still running amongst the best in the world.

During early 1980's I performed emergency standby for the Rooivalk while it underwent testing at the old Jan Smuts Airport on rwy 03L / 15 Atlas intersection. The maneuvers those pilots pulled were amazing, they dubbed it as SA's version of Airwolf.

@12:00 don't forget how the Hinds (Mi-24) with poor accuracy couldn't handle that no big deal anti aircraft gun in low visibility, it was in DRC at the Rwanda boarder against M23 rebels. Those 2 helicopters cooled that entire region as most rebels fled and led to immediate surrender. Rooivalk became the choice attack helicopter for UN chiefs in the region. Mokopa is better than hellfire, a-darter is 5th gen air to air, world-class helmet aiming system, simplified feild maintenance and she is agile, powerful precise and a high altitude machine that's not afraid of dust. Thank the Americans who interfered as they saw a threat to apache sales and the French for refusing to supply gearboxes and deny interested countries a superior product to the troubled Tiger, those who really didn't want the tigre ended up with apache.

Matt, there's also Umkhonto (south african)SAM-system which i've heard is quite good!

Anyone with more than a passing interest in defence matters during the 80s 90s and 00s knows about the South African defence industry. The South African arms industry was up there with the best.

I was on the production line of the brother of the Rooifalk the Oryx. Love the video! Thanks

The country which can build this death angel no longer exist.

certainly would like to see some more south-african metal !

I am no expert but did see one of these up close at a local airfield. The power and agility in the air was very impressive - I would NOT like to be among ground troops having to face up against these machines!!

This helicopter is a case study how ineffective sanctions are.

I'm actually very happy to hear you pronounce the Afrikaans names and words properly

Hi there, just to tell you that a single Rooivalk did in fact destroy an armed rebel group, known as M-23 rebel group, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and that was in late afternoon during bad weather. A sorty of armed Ukranian Hip Mi-24's flew over the target without as much as a visual contact as weather was really bad. The rebels were caught by surprise, using the rain and low cloud as cover, the Rooivalk found them and with a single attack, unleashed havoc amid heavy return fire and it was over within a few seconds. The M-23 had there back bone broken by a single assault by this aircraft...

Now the G6 Renoster next!

Oi oi South Africa represent

Hi there, thank you so much for the awesome video. I served in the SANDF at School of Armour at Tempe and would like to add that the Rooivalk is able and has flown inverted and can do a barrel roll also. Just an interesting info for you

South Africa is still able to produce their own designs. Interesting.

it's actually a very potent package, purpose built for the African continent /conditions

I still believe tht it could be a good combat opponent to AH-64 Apache

Great Segment! Its very true that there is a deep sense of pride amongst South Africans that we can produce our own military equipment. Unfortunately we own very few of our own product due to bad management.

Hi Matsimus love seeing this as a South African !!! I traveled to Canada earlier this month and absolutely loved it , beautiful country !! Love the content please keep it up !!! And well done with the pronunciation

Respect South Africa hope your have a prosperous future.

Rooivalk can also fly inverted. Does a back loop .

I can't believe you've missed RSA's defence sector forget the main battle tank. Mraps are what South Africa does best, sadly BAE land systems get the credit.

I do think the Rooivalk is actually awesome. At least there is no inherent american remote off button installed ;-)

My late friends father was the head engineer for the electrical layout of this copter, his dad was the lead engineer for the grippen technology in SA as well.

Saw a guy this year at the airshow doing low speed maneuvers flawlessly... Also you didn't talk about the fact it's armoured... And pilots who've flown a range of attack helicopters, love it, they love its speed and maneuverability... Plus this thing is huge, only attack helicopter bigger than it is the hind

RIP SADF 1957-1994

5:34 say it with me matsimus, AIR-OH-SPAY-SHE-AHL POO-MUH

Thanks for doing the South African equipment The rooivalk (BTW nice job on pronouncing it correctly) is actually very on par and in some cases better then the apache one reason is the rooivalk has been designed for high dust & desert environments which i know the apache struggled with in Irag in the gulf wars,The rooivalk is also the first helicopter in the world to do a 360 degree loop which is quite unique in the combat helicopter world It has to be also mentioned the rooivalk would have been launched in the early 90's but because of regime changes & continued underfunding of the Airforce & Military since then it was delayed.Also the rooivalk as you mentioned has a low radar signature which makes it very good for low flying scout & combat missions.Also the South African Air to ground anti tank missile it uses is highly effective & is reported to be able to penetrate 1200MM+ of RHA.So yes although it doesn't seem very flashy or High Techy it is a highly effective killing machine.Also could you do after the Olifant MBT the Rooikat & the New Badger APC that we have & also the G5 Artillery piece & G6 SPG which still holds the record for longest shell fired from a SPG at 75KM.Also do the mraps we have(We are world leaders on Mraps since the 60's) which america is buying from us over 17,000 mraps are being bought by America from South Africa.Also in response to it not intended for long range missions look at superwout's comment he is correct almost all South African equipment are designed for long range because when we fought in Angola that was a requirement because of the large distances between combat zones that we fought & lack of Sufficient Facilities everywhere to refuel & maintain everything in essentially very thick & rough bush & Desert terrain we designed our equipment to be able to run longer & farther exactly for that reason & needing less maintenance time then American & British equivalents

Nice video! Was hoping you would start doing videos about SADF weapons. Cant wait for the Olifant - also check out Ratel, rooikat and G6 when you get the chance.

You have to look into the G-6 SPG from RSA , has an projectile range of +-68 km

Man how my people have messed everything up, I am just ashamed at how things turned out. But with that said I am very proud of this achievement for my country in part.

That ending flyby was amazing!

Great video Matsimus! Your commentary, as well as your pronunciation is spot-on!

What?! Never head of the rooivalk?! I'm really surprised to hear that. Unfortunately there are only around 12 in operational service all together.

Maybe what you did not know, the USAF refused to display their AH64-Apache at any airshow where the Rooivalk was in operation. This was mainly due to the aerobatic capability of this helicopter that can doe the loop and barrel roll at very low altitudes. Also, the one minor military credit you spoke of ended a 10-year civil war in one encounter with the Rooivalk, the rebels went to the negotiating table because of the damage this one attack.

Proud to say my grandfather was involved with the design and building of the rooivalk in his time at Denel

Always pleasantly surprised by your video production values and the density of entertaining and informative content!

Australia and Turkey (even the UK) were very interested in this bird... but bigger companies played dirty.

Britian still builds stuff matimus, but most of it is jointly developed with Europe rather than bought. The f35 is also another example of joint development. And a lot of our ground vehicles is still made here.

The Rooivalk is the best attack helicopter platform in the world. There's many things to prove this. Not only does it boast the speed record of any attack helicopter but also its special integrated transmission system which was also designed in South Africa allows this helicopter to fly upside down. drastically increasing the amount of moves its capable of and the only helicopter with this capability in the world. The heads up display system is the same one the Apache uses but upgraded because America actually bought that system from South Africa. That's right... and the only thing that might give the Apache a advantage over the Rooivalk is the Longbow system developed in Britain. If you really look into it you will find that this is the best in the world and its super cheap to maintain which also gives it a advantage in warfare. The flexibility of this platform is amazing.

For interest sake, Belgium ordered a whole bunch of these helicopters back in the 90's, but American company General Dynamics/Gruman were selling F-16 to them and said that if they do not buy Apache from another American company Boeing they will not sell F-16 to them. The Rooivalk deal was naturally droped and Belgium went for the American aircraft.

Thanks a 1 000 000 for giveing us some spotlight.

Was given a special tour of Denel Aviation, as a family friend was one of the lead designers of the rooivalk. I asked if I could sit in it, and they said no, because if I pushed a wrong button I could potentially shoot a missile! Had to settle with a photo next to it. If I recall the rooivalk was the first heli that could do a full back flip. Cognisance needs to be also be given, that the design of the heli was intended to be simple and easy to work on in the field. The projected war that it was intended to fight in, was very far from logistical bases, high temp and high dust environments.

Thank you Matsimus, I've been waiting for this one!!!

It also was able to operate optimal in desserts. their air systems were pretty good for its time compared to other helicopters.

Awe mense! have seen this beast at many a air show and those pilots make that thing flick and flack its impressive A.F to see. Peace from South Africa

that South African chap, Neall Ellis, is that the same guy that flew a Hind in Sierra Leone? I googled him and he looks remarkable similar

This was nearly selected by the UK military until the USA stopped the deal. There are 12 that have been completed. The UN called for this to be used when an Apache failed in a mission and the Red Hawk aka Rooi falk... Has cheaper running and lower operation costs.

Appreciate this video mate. Keep up the good work.

Just got to say love these videos 🖒🇬🇧

Do you know the way bruddah!.

Hi Matsimus. Yes, the company Dinel that designed and built the Rooivalk is facing bankruptcy. Denel used to be one of the best weapons manufacturers in the world. They designed and built the Cheetah fighter plane to combat the MIG 23 up to 27. The Olifant tank was the biggest, heaviest and fastest tank built for its era. The G5 canon they built could shoot a projectile with pin point accuracy up to 45 Km(28miles). They build the Nyala anti riot armoired vehicle, the Ratel infantry vehicle, the Rooikat reconnaissance vehicle and many more. Such a pity that such a strong company is brought down to its knees by corruption. Corruption is the biggest drug in Africa. Thank you for a good and informative channel. Ps. Dinel was formed from a conjunction of companies eg. grinigar, littleton engenering and others.

I appreciate this video. Thank you!

Looking forwards more videos on SA equipment

South Africa also held nuclear warheads and conducted their own tests. They did a great deal under the radar.

SA went up against the soviet union for more than 2 dekades and never lost a large conflict.

Great Vid! Cheers from South Africa!

Small note - Rooivalk is actually one of the Afrikaans names for the Rock Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus - also known as the kransvalk) - this is what you learn when your in-laws are Afrikaans and also birdwatchers.