Kamov Ka-50 - Operational History

Operational History

Ka-50 took part in the Russian Army's operations against insurgents in the Chechen Republic. In December 2000, a pair of production Ka-50s arrived to the area. With the Ka-50s was a Ka-29, to provide reconnaissance and target designation. On 6 January 2001, the Ka-50 used live weapons against a real enemy for the first time. On 9 January, at the entry into a mountain gorge in the area of a settlement named Komsomolskoye, a single Ka-50 accompanied by an Mi-24 used S-8 unguided rockets to destroy a warehouse full of ammunition belonging to Chechen insurgents. On 6 February, in the forest covered mountain area to the south of the village of Tsentoroj, the strike group composed of two Ka-50s and the sole Ka-29 discovered and, from a range of 3 km, destroyed a fortified camp of insurgents using two "Vikhr" guided missiles. 14 February, saw a similar strike group carrying out a "hunting" mission in the area of Oak-Yurt and Hatun. In difficult conditions, pilots found and destroyed eight targets. These missions tested the type's airframe, as well as its on-board systems and armament. Its successful performance in difficult, mountainous terrain once again confirmed the usefulness of the many advanced features of the Ka-50's design, including its power and maneuverability.

It is unclear if the type has been used in combat since. It has participated in a number of exercises, including "Boundary 2004" which took place on the Edelweiss mountain range in Kyrgyzstan, in August 2004. Once again the "Hokum" demonstrated its advantages by operating at a high altitude and an air temperature of more than 30 °C. A Ka-50 provided cover for the landing of troops and then successfully worked on the ground targets using its cannons and rockets.

Ka-50 "Bort 22" with a distinctive "Black Shark" livery was lost in a crash on June 17, 1998. Its pilot Maj. Gen. Boris Vorobyov was killed in the crash. Cause of the accident has been attributed to "helicopter's co-axial rotor blades hitting each other during hard manoeuvring".

India issued a request for proposal for 22 attack helicopters for the Indian Air Force in May 2008. The Kamov Ka-50 along with Mil's Mi-28 and Eurocopter's Tiger were the front-runners for this order as of October 2008. The tender though was eventually cancelled and later India announced a new tender, with revised conditions. Russia again offered Mi-28N and Ka-52.

Russia is receiving Ka-52s as of 2 January 2011.

A Ka-52 crashed during a training flight, near Torzhok on 13 March 2012; both pilots died. An investigation is underway.

Read more about this topic:  Kamov Ka-50

Famous quotes containing the word history:

    We are told that men protect us; that they are generous, even chivalric in their protection. Gentlemen, if your protectors were women, and they took all your property and your children, and paid you half as much for your work, though as well or better done than your own, would you think much of the chivalry which permitted you to sit in street-cars and picked up your pocket- handkerchief?
    Mary B. Clay, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 3, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)