The AFU Destroyed 52 Russian "Ka" Vehicles

• 23.03.2026, 8:55

Alligator genocide in the steppes of Donbass.

The Russians have once again lost their Ka-52 attack helicopters. Yesterday it became known that during the fighting in Donetsk region fighters of the "Predators of Heights" battalion of the 59th separate assault brigade of unmanned SBS systems destroyed one "Alligator" with the help of FPV-drone.

After the forced landing the crew tried to escape and even ran to the nearest shelter, but it was discovered and destroyed by operators of the 414th brigade "Birds of Madyar". Those who wish can watch the corresponding video online.

The location of the incident was almost immediately established - it is the vicinity of the village of Nadezhdinka in the Pokrovsk direction, which is more than 5 km from the contact line.

Despite the fact that the Ka-52 is equipped with a catapult system, the pilots did not use it, because the helicopter was shot down at low altitude. The thing is that the catapult still needs to be activated. In addition, after activation of the system, the propeller blades are first shot off, which also takes time.

The incident was the first known case of shooting down an attack helicopter with the help of an FPV drone: previously, multi-purpose helicopters were shot down.

So this case can be called historic.

"Helicopter Fall" continued.

On Saturday, March 21, Russian publiki reported that another Ka-52 had been lost. Virtually no details were given. According to the Russians, one of the helicopter's crew members was killed.

The destruction of the Ka-52 became symptomatic in the context of the Russian-Ukrainian war - over the years of the war, the Alligator has become the absolute "leader" among all Russian attack helicopters. The number of lost machines of this type has long ago passed fifty units.

We recall that Moscow started the war with two main types of attack helicopters - Ka-52 and Mi-28N. The word "new" is somewhat conventional, because both machines originated in the USSR (the Ka-52, for example, is a modernization of the Soviet Ka-50).

According to open sources, by 2022, about 100-120 helicopters of the Mi-28 family were built, while the number of Ka-52 was more than 120. In other words, if we talk about helicopters produced, the numbers are very similar. But as for the losses in the war, no.

If the total number of lost (destroyed + damaged) Mi-28 is estimated by experts at about 20, in the case of the Ka-52 losses already exceed 65 helicopters.

Even if we isolate from this number of damaged machines, which could later return to service, the number of irrecoverably lost machines will still exceed 50 helicopters.

This is not the Vietnam War, where the Americans lost more than 3,000 UH-1 helicopters, but the number is still impressive. Especially since it is disproportionately high compared to the losses of other Russian attack helicopters.

Is the Ka-52 so "hopeless"? We should not jump to conclusions - in fact, the reasons for the high losses among "Alligators" are not so much in the shortcomings as in the advantages of the helicopter. This is a kind of paradox of war (or, rather, one of them).

The first and main reason for the high losses of the Ka-52 is that the helicopter is more often used in combat operations than the Mi-28N or, say, the Mi-35M. Over the years of war, it has become a real workhorse of the Russian Air and Space Forces - just as the Su-34/M has become among aircraft.

The advantages of the Ka-52 are obvious: at least against the background of other attack helicopters of the Russian Federation. Let's look at the main competitor.

Russians love beautiful epithets. If the Ka-50 they called the "Black Shark", the Mi-28N was nicknamed "Night Hunter". The name was chosen because of the ability of the helicopter to hit targets at night (early version of the Mi-28A did not have specialized equipment for combat operations in night conditions).

But no hunter he actually did not become. Probably the best description of the helicopter left the former commander-in-chief of the Russian Air and Space Forces Viktor Bondariev.

"Electronics failed: nothing the pilot does not see, nothing the pilot does not hear. These glasses they put on, they call 'death to pilots.' The sky is cloudless - everything is normal, and if some smoke - they walk around with red eyes for three days," he said in 2017.

This is almost a unique case of the Russians being so frank about their helicopters, which they have always been so proud of. In other words, the statement probably didn't come out of nowhere - the situation with the Mi-28 has obviously become critical.

The Ka-52's electronics have also caused a lot of complaints.

Because of the frankly awful image quality, its sighting and navigation system has not been criticized only by the lazy. On the other hand, it at least allows to recognize ground targets and aim weapons at them.

The latter, by the way, has become one of the main advantages of the Ka-52 over other Russian attack helicopters.

I am talking about anti-tank missile systems, which are (or at least should be) the main means of defeat. While the Night Hunter is armed with Ataka (up to 16 units), the Ka-52 can take up to 12 Vikhr missiles.

One of the main disadvantages of Ataka is its too short range, which is only 6 km.

This is critically short in the conditions of modern warfare, when each side has a huge number of portable surface-to-air missile systems.

The fact is that the range of the latter is very close to the maximum range of the Ataka-B. Recall that at the beginning of the war, one of the Mi-28 was shot down by a British man-portable air defense system Starstreak, the range of which reaches 7 km.

In the case of the "Vortex" situation is much better, because its maximum range reaches about 10 km. This allows the Ka-52 to operate outside the MANPADS kill zone. Of course, this also requires luck, because in practice there are different cases (ambushes, the use of FPV, etc.).

The Russians have recently been trying to use a new aircraft missile Kh-39, which has a range of 14.5-20 km. At the same time, it can only be used by modernized Ka-52M and Mi-28NM. The exact number of these machines is unknown, but according to Western observers, we are talking about a few dozen boards at most.

"Kamov" is more often used not only because of its missiles. The Ka-52 is superior to the Mi-28N in terms of defense.

The axial arrangement of the propellers and the absence of a steering propeller make it less vulnerable to ground fire and more maneuverable. The Ka-52 is also equipped with an advanced anti-aircraft missile defense system "Vitebsk".

It is designed to detect laser irradiation of the helicopter with the identification of laser guidance devices, as well as to counter guided missiles with infrared homing heads aimed at the helicopter and to warn of their launch.

Like everything Russian, the system does not work perfectly, but it has saved the lives of Russian pilots many times.

So why has the Ka-52, which was supposed to be a symbol of the "greatness of Russian weapons," turned into a symbol of the collapse of the Kremlin's geopolitical ambitions? In fact, as already noted, the reason lies not in the helicopter's shortcomings.

The heavy losses are due to the ridiculous tactics of the Russian Federation.

In the early days of the war, the helicopter was actively used, in particular, to support paratroopers. Ka-52s flew literally over Ukrainian positions, fired from the 30mm 2A42 cannon and used unguided rockets. This inevitably led to heavy losses among the helicopters and their crews.

Subsequently, there was "Chernobayevka," when the Russians brought their Ka-52s to the front-line airfields time after time, and the Ukrainians destroyed them on the ground with everything they had (primarily long-range weapons).

Then came the counteroffensive in Zaporozhye, where the Ka-52s were generally effective, but also suffered losses from ground fire. Finally, the "population" of attack helicopters was thinned out by the Prirozhyns during their rebellion in 2023.

And lastly, there were the anti-aircraft FPVs, which, according to the Russians, have already become even more of a threat to helicopters than man-portable surface-to-air missile systems.

The large number of FPVs prevents the Russians from performing their favorite "circus trick," namely tilt-fire. This is when a helicopter pilot tilts the nose of the vehicle up before launching unguided rockets to give them a slanted trajectory.

In theory, this allows them to hit targets at a greater distance while remaining at a low altitude and avoiding direct air defense fire. In practice, however, the effectiveness of such tactics is practically nil due to low accuracy and huge spread of unguided weapons.

In the past, such a show was less dangerous, but due to the large number of drones has become a one-way ticket.

Oddly enough, it is attack helicopters that pose the greatest threat to FPV. The fact is that the crews of multi-purpose Mi-8s use homemade electronic warfare devices: at least that's what the Russians themselves say. They somewhat reduce the risk of a drone hit.

At the same time, in the case of "strikers" the problem is the lack of electromagnetic compatibility with the helicopter's own radio-electronic systems. In other words, such REB can pose a threat to the Ka-52 itself.

Thereby, another problem of the Russian defense industry - the inability to respond quickly to changing conditions on the battlefield.

If in the case of tanks or armored personnel carriers this problem can be solved by homemade nets and "braziers", then it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to improve the survivability of attack helicopters using "grandfatherly" methods. This means that in the future we will see more destroyed Ka-52s.

Ilya Vedmedenko, unian.net