Combat helicopters Kamow Ka-50 and Ka-52 part 1
Single-seat combat helicopter Ka-50 in service with the military aviation combat training center in Torzhek. At its peak, the Russian Air Force used only six Ka-50s; the rest were used for rehearsals.
The Ka-52 is a combat helicopter of a unique design with two coaxial rotors, a crew of two sitting side by side in ejection seats, with extremely powerful weapons and self-defense equipment, and with an even more remarkable history. Its first version, the Ka-50 single-seat combat helicopter, went into production 40 years ago, on June 17, 1982. When the helicopter was later ready for mass production, Russia entered a deep economic crisis and the money ran out. Only 20 years later, in 2011, deliveries to military units of a deeply modified, two-seat version of the Ka-52 began. Since February 24 of this year, Ka-52 helicopters have been participating in Russian aggression against Ukraine.
In the second half of the 60s, the Vietnam War experienced a "helicopter boom": the number of American helicopters there increased from 400 in 1965 to 4000 in 1970. In the USSR, this was observed and lessons learned. On March 29, 1967, the Mikhail Mil Design Bureau received an order to develop the concept of a combat helicopter. The concept of the Soviet combat helicopter at that time was different than in the West: in addition to weapons, it also had to carry a team of soldiers. This idea arose due to the enthusiasm of Soviet military leaders after the introduction of the BMP-1966 infantry fighting vehicle with unique characteristics in the Soviet Army in 1st year. The BMP-1 carried eight soldiers, had armor and was armed with a 2-mm 28A73 low-pressure cannon and Malyutka anti-tank guided missiles. Its use opened up new tactical possibilities for the ground forces. From here the idea arose to go even further and the helicopter designers ordered a "flying infantry fighting vehicle."
In the project of the Ka-25F army helicopter by Nikolai Kamov, engines, gearboxes and rotors from the Ka-25 marine helicopter were used. He lost in the competition to Mikhail Mil's Mi-24 helicopter.
Only Mikhail Mil was commissioned for the first time, as Nikolai Kamov "always" made naval helicopters; he worked only with the fleet and was not taken into account by army aviation. However, when Nikolai Kamov learned about the order for an army combat helicopter, he also proposed his own project.
The Kamov company developed the design of the Ka-25F (front-line, tactical), emphasizing its low cost by using elements of its latest Ka-25 naval helicopter, which was mass-produced at the Ulan-Ude plant since April 1965. The design feature of the Ka-25 was that the power unit, main gear and rotors were an independent module that could be detached from the fuselage. Kamow proposed to use this module in a new army helicopter and add only a new body to it. In the cockpit, the pilot and gunner sat side by side; then there was a hold with 12 troops. In the combat version, instead of soldiers, the helicopter could receive anti-tank missiles controlled by external arrows. Under the fuselage in a mobile installation was a 23-mm gun GSh-23. While working on the Ka-25F, Kamov's group experimented with the Ka-25, from which radar and anti-submarine equipment were removed and UB-16-57 S-5 57-mm multi-shot rocket launchers were installed. The skid chassis for the Ka-25F was planned by the designers as more durable than the wheeled chassis. Later, this was considered a mistake, since the use of the former is rational only for light helicopters.
Ka-25F was supposed to be a small helicopter; according to the project, it had a mass of 8000 kg and two GTD-3F gas turbine engines with a power of 2 x 671 kW (900 hp) manufactured by the Design Bureau of Valentin Glushenkov in Omsk; in the future, they were planned to be increased to 932 kW (1250 hp). However, as the project was implemented, the requirements of the military grew and it was no longer possible to satisfy them within the framework of the dimensions and weight of the Ka-25. For example, the military demanded armor for the cockpit and pilots, which was not in the original specification. GTD-3F engines could not cope with such a load. Meanwhile, the team of Mikhail Mil did not limit himself to existing solutions and developed his Mi-24 helicopter (project 240) as a completely new solution with two new powerful TV2-117 engines with a power of 2 x 1119 kW (1500 hp).
Thus, the Ka-25F lost to the Mi-24 in the design competition. On May 6, 1968, by a joint resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR, a new combat helicopter was ordered in the Mila brigade. Since the "flying infantry fighting vehicle" was a priority, the prototype "19" was tested on September 1969, 240, and in November 1970 the plant in Arsenyev produced the first Mi-24. The helicopter in various modifications was manufactured in the amount of more than 3700 copies, and in the form of the Mi-35M is still produced by a plant in Rostov-on-Don.
