US receives Russian Ka-52 helicopter for further study

The defence portal Bulgarian Military has published an article that assesses the course of Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine and the technical aspect of the deployed weaponry. Caliber.Az reprints this analytical article. 

"Since the start of the war in Ukraine, which began on February 24, dozens of Russian weapons have ended up in US hands. Some of them were studied by Western military experts long before the war. Soviet-designed weapons have not been that big of a secret for the last say 70 years.

However, there are new designs from the last 20-30 years that the US and partners did not have or had difficulty accessing. Eastern Ukraine is not only a battlefield at the moment but also a research laboratory. Thanks to the Ukrainian armed forces, Washington 'captured' some new Russian weapons that are of interest for study. The Su-35 falls into this category, as does the T-90M Proryv tank.

It is naive to think that in such a situation the warring poles will miss the opportunity to study the enemy. Russia, for example, has already announced that it is investigating a missile launched by the HIMARS system that did not explode. It does the same with the Javelin anti-tank missile system.

Captured weapons from the Ukrainian armed forces are actually captured weapons from the west as well. Here, for example, very soon the military experts from the US Army will most likely get access to the 'scariest' helicopter declared by Russia – the Ka-52 Alligator.

The Ka-52 helicopter with tail number 18 is now in the hands of the Ukrainian army. There is ample evidence that Russia lost at least 25 Ka-52 attack helicopters from February to November. But a video circulating on social media shows that at least one of those 25 helicopters was not destroyed, but captured.

There is no information on when the video was taken. It could have been months ago and that helicopter that was recorded to be loaded was no longer in Ukraine. It may even have been somewhere in the temporary military bases in the Czech Republic and Poland, and after being studied by the US military, was returned to the Ukrainians. At least since the beginning of the war, it has been clear that Ukraine, with foreign aid, repaired captured Russian weapons and used them against the Russian armed forces.

It’s anyone’s guess where the chopper was captured. According to his queue number, he was stuck due to a technical problem in the area of Hostomel Airport (Gostomel). This is an airfield that was used in the first months of the invasion by the Russians to attack positions near Kyiv.

According to information mainly on the social network, which could not be confirmed, the crew of a Ka-52 helicopter with tail number 18 abandoned the stuck helicopter. He stayed there for at least 40 days without an attempt by the Russian armed forces to retrieve him. The Ukrainians then regained control of the airport and thus acquired the Russian helicopter.

It will be interesting to wait to find out what components, elements, and materials were used in the development of the Ka-52. According to journalistic investigations, at least 27 Russian weapons have been thoroughly examined since the beginning of the war. BulgarianMilitary.com has also published several times photographic materials of captured Russian weapons that show the presence of Western semiconductors and components.

The Ka-52 will certainly be of interest to the Americans. Although not a purely Russian design, the Ka-52 is a heavily upgraded version of the Soviet Ka-50 Black Shark helicopter. The Ka-52 entered service with the Russian army nearly 11 years ago.

The helicopter has six hard points for armament on its wings. According to Russian sources, they can hold a total of 4,000 pounds of weapons. The helicopter can fly at an altitude of 18,000 feet.

Some Western military analysts argue that the helicopter is more of a countermeasure against armored ground brigades than a pure attack helicopter. The Ka-52 can deal with tanks, armored personnel carriers, and other types of unarmored or armored vehicles. I.e. The Ka-52 is an anti-armor skirmish unit capable of firing short-range anti-tank guided missiles".