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KA-52 tail lost ukraine

Its fair to say that the Ka-52 Hokum attack helicopter has become something of a signature weapon on the Russian side in the conflict in Ukraine. Reflecting the mixed results of the Kremlins war more generally, the Ka-52 has sustained heavy losses, shown some apparently problematic flying characteristics when heavily loaded with weapons, and performed some very ill-advised stunts. Meanwhile, it has also borne the brunt of the close air support missions now being flown in an effort to blunt the Ukrainian counteroffensive. And for one Ka-52 crew, the helicopters unique configuration very likely saved their lives during one, apparently recent mission.

A Russian Ka-52 helicopter flying with a damaged tail. https://t.co/n3EImSNpFK pic.twitter.com/nUNlqMkS08

— Rob Lee (@RALee85) June 19, 2023

A video that began to circulate on social media today shows a Ka-52 flying at a relatively low level, with its tail torn apart, the remnants of the vertical fin dangling precariously from the rear. A photo of the helicopter after landing reveals how that part of the empennage was twisted around to more than 90 degrees but somehow remained attached.

pic.twitter.com/mi8WvDVGI0

— ??Ukrainian Front (@front_ukrainian) June 19, 2023

The video seems to have been shot from the cockpit of the Ka-52s wingman, or another accompanying helicopter. While we cant be sure where the video was taken, or when, it seems almost certain it was in southeastern Ukraine, with what looks like part of the Black Sea coastline visible at the start.

As well as the wrecked tail, several items can be seen falling away from the Ka-52 right at the start of the video, apparently stores jettisoned by the crew, but they could potentially also be other parts of the tail assembly that fell away.

There have been claims that the crews jettisoning of external stores in particular, the fuel tanks is what led to the tail damage in the first place, with one of these tanks said to have been thrown back up into the slipstream and impacted the tail. Its not possible to tell, looking at this video, whether thats the case, although the fact that four items are apparently jettisoned suggests that drop tanks (carried in pairs) and rocket pods were discarded. That could also suggest that the issue with the tail emerged before the decision was taken to jettison stores.

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However, poor separation of stores is certainly an issue that can lead to potentially very hazardous impacts on an aircraft.

And here is a video of Russian Ka-52 with a broken tail boom.

When the outboard fuel tanks were jettisoned, they were blown back, and as a result, one of the tanks broke the tail boom of the helicopter.

The helicopter was able to return to its base. pic.twitter.com/RR4ZJgBcbM

— Clash Report (@clashreport) June 19, 2023

The front end of the helicopter seems to have been damaged, too, with a suggestion that the windshield was torn off, or at least some part of the forward fuselage also appears to be missing.

All in all, it seems just as likely that the Ka-52 fell victim to Ukrainian air defenses, which managed to get a hit on the airframe, although without causing enough damage to knock it out of the sky.

Whatever the case, the two-man crew of the attack helicopter has reason to be grateful for the design of their aircraft. One of the key features of the Ka-52 is its unconventional coaxial main rotor arrangement, obviating the need for a tail rotor.

In almost any other helicopter, this level of damage to the tail assembly would be an extremely serious event.

In a conventional helicopter, the tail rotor is mounted at the end of the tail boom. Since the tail rotor provides torque to counteract the main rotors (which are rotating either clockwise or counterclockwise), if it stops functioning, the helicopter will begin spinning in the opposite direction of the main rotor. In the best-case scenario, the pilot will then enter an autorotation and perform an emergency running landing. In the worst case, it will lead to a crash or even a mid-air breakup. The lower and slower a helicopter is flying when it loses its tail rotor, the less likely it is that the pilot will be able to recover at all.

With that in mind, a coaxial main rotor in which there are two sets of main rotors, one above the other, one turning clockwise and one counterclockwise makes a good deal of sense for an attack helicopter, which will likely spend much of its time low and slow. But there are also major tradeoffs to this configuration.

While coaxial main rotors are a trademark of the Kamov design bureaus naval helicopter designs, they also retained them for the (primarily) land-based Ka-50/52 series. These helicopters also have other unusual survivability features, including a crew rescue system.

Often described as being fitted with ejection seats, the Ka-52 actually doesnt have true ejection seats, but instead, a crew extraction system, which doesnt rely on rockets to punch the seats out of the cockpit, but instead to drag them out.

In the Ka-52, the crew extraction system first jettisons the main rotor blades using a series of explosive bolts. The cockpit canopy glass is then jettisoned, and two rocket assemblies are launched out of the cockpit. Each rocket assembly is connected via a lanyard to one of the Zvezda/Tomilino K-37-800M seats, which is then pulled out of the cockpit before a parachute is deployed. The system can be operated at speeds from zero to 189 knots, and also at zero altitude.

Ka-52 alligator and its unique K-37-800M ejection seats. Before the rocket in the ejection seat deploys, the rotor blades are blown away by explosive charges in the rotor disc and the canopy is jettisoned. pic.twitter.com/BzPP9SNXMZ

— ???????? ?. (@VladZinen) December 11, 2020

So far, we have seen surprisingly few conclusive examples of Ka-52 crew using the crew extraction system during the war in Ukraine, although the number of losses suggests that it has likely been used on various other undocumented occasions, successfully or otherwise.

https://twitter.com/clashreport/status/1621951537474928641?s=20 https://twitter.com/_davemorrison/status/1576891537190842369?s=20

As it is, we dont know for sure why a Ka-52 was left flying over Ukraine with its tail assembly shredded, although we can say with some certainty that, had they been flying another helicopter type, the crew in question are far less likely to have made it back to their base.

Contact the author: thomas@thedrive.com

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Badly Damaged Russian Ka-52 Attack Helicopter Flies Without Its Tail Over Ukraine - Yahoo News

BLAHODATNE, Ukraine After months of preparation and bolstered by hundreds of donated tanks, armored vehicles and howitzers, Ukraine has notched small successes in the first week and a half of a counteroffensive to drive Russian forces from southern Ukraine.

In fierce fighting on the plains, the military said it had broken through a first line of Russian defenses and reclaimed seven villages.

The fruits of their labor could be seen on a visit with the Ukrainian military to one of those villages, Blahodatne, on Thursday as well as the daunting challenges that lie ahead.

Ukraine has yet to commit the bulk of its reserves, including troops trained in Europe over the winter and spring, and equipped with weaponry from NATO countries, meaning it can bring still more force to bear. But with each step forward, its soldiers become more vulnerable removed from the safety of their own trenches, closer to Russian artillery, maneuvering through minefields and unprotected from airstrikes.

Ukraine is engaged in two main thrusts southward, where it has broken through most deeply in the string of small villages that includes Blahodatne, where the soldiers were diving for cover on Thursday.

For Ukrainian soldiers with the 68th Scout Brigade who entered the villages, the sweetness of liberating land was tempered by the panorama of ruin that greeted them and what came next: a relentless bombardment from Russian forces.

They are attacking with rockets, howitzers, mortars, helicopters and drones, Sgt. Serhiy Gubanov said in an interview while taking cover in a basement as explosions boomed outside.

Its the complete collection of intense experiences, he said.

Maria Varenikova contributed reporting from Konstantinople, Ukraine.

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Ukraine retakes some villages but its forces face minefields and more airstrikes. - The New York Times

Russian forces launched a major drone assault on Kyiv overnight and attacked several other regions, Ukrainian officials said on Tuesday, but there were no reports of casualties.

"New massive air attack on the capital," wrote the Kyiv City Military Administration, adding that it was the first attack on the Ukrainian capital in 18 days to use Iranian-made Shahed explosive drones.

Russiahad launched a wave of aerial attacks on critical Ukrainian infrastructure over the winter months but those cruise missile and drone strikes have become less frequent.

The Ukrainian air force said on Tuesday it had downed a total of 32 attack drones out of 35 launched byRussia's forces.

In the western city of Lviv, drones hit "critical infrastructure," the head of the regional administration, Maksym Kozytski, wrote on Telegram, without giving further details.

The military administration of Zaporizhzhia said the southern city and its surroundings had been the target of a "massive attack" aimed at civilian infrastructure.

Ukraine has recently bolstered its air defense systems with Western-supplied weapons and the number of Russian missiles and drones breaking through has diminished.

But the spokesman for Ukraine's air forces, Yuriy Ignat, said that newly supplied systems were still insufficient to cover the whole country.

"Air defense systems are deployed where they are most needed, protecting large cities, infrastructure facilities, nuclear power facilities and the front line," he said on local television.

"There is a lack of air defense capabilities to put it mildly to cover a country like Ukraine, like Israel has done."

Three Iranian-made drones were also shot down over the southern region of Mykolaiv, Governor Vitaliy Kim said on Telegram.

Read the rest here:
'Massive' Overnight Drone Attack on Kyiv Ukrainian Officials - The Moscow Times

https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-war-attack-kyiv-drones-26e3c4989ed0051baa25abe78e0e3aa6

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A Ukrainian wounded soldier gets the first aid at a medical stabilisation point near Bakhmut, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Monday, June 19, 2023. (AP Photo/Libkos)

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A Ukrainian wounded soldier gets the first aid at a medical stabilisation point near Bakhmut, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Monday, June 19, 2023. (AP Photo/Libkos)

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) Ukrainian air defenses downed 32 of 35 Shahed exploding drones launched by Russia early Tuesday, most of them in the Kyiv region, officials said, in a bombardment that exposed gaps in the countrys air protection after almost 16 months of war.

Russian forces mostly targeted the region around the Ukrainian capital in a nighttime drone attack lasting around three hours, officials said, but Ukrainian air defenses in the area shot down about two dozen of them.

The attack was part of a wider bombardment of Ukrainian regions that extended as far as the Lviv region in the west of the country, near Poland.

The Shahed drones made it all the way to Lviv because of the inability of air defense assets to cover such a broad area, Ukrainian air force spokesman Yuriy Ihnat said.

Air defense systems are mostly dedicated to protecting major cities, key infrastructure facilities, including nuclear power plants, and the front line, he said.

There is a general lack of air defense assets to cover a country like Ukraine with a dome like Israel has, he said, in a reference to Israels Iron Dome aerial defense system.

In the Lviv region, the Russian strike hit a critical infrastructure facility, starting a fire, according to Lviv Gov. Maksym Kozytskyi.

Russia also struck the southern Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine with ballistic missiles.

Ukraines air defenses have been reinforced with sophisticated weapons from its Western allies, allowing it a higher success rate recently against incoming drones and missiles.

Previously, a winter bombardment by Russia damaged Ukraines power supply, though speedy repairs blunted that Kremlin effort.

The latest aerial assaults behind Ukraines front line coincided with the early stages of a Ukrainian counteroffensive, as it aims to dislodge the Kremlins forces from territory occupied since Russias full-scale invasion in February 2022.

The counteroffensive has come up against heavily mined terrain and reinforced defensive fortifications, according to Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the commander-in-chief of Ukraines armed forces.

Russia has also mustered a large number of reserves, he said in a post accompanying a video of him visiting front-line positions with other senior officers.

Heavy battles are taking place in eastern Ukraine, around Bakhmut, Lyman, Avdiivka and Marinka, the Ukrainian armed forces said. Russia shelled 15 cities and villages in the eastern Donetsk region, wounding five civilians, including three in Chasiv Yar near Bakhmut, according to Ukraines presidential office.

Despite the fierce resistance of the occupiers, our soldiers are doing everything possible to liberate Ukrainian territory. The operation continues as planned, Zaluzhnyis post said.

In other developments, Russias Foreign Intelligence Service, known by its acronym SVR, invited Ukrainian diplomats stationed abroad to come to Russia with their families to avoid returning to Ukraine. It claimed many Ukrainian diplomats are unwilling to return home after their tours and want refugee status in the European Union and Asian countries where they worked.

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Follow APs coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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Ukraine downs Russian drones but some get through due to gaps in ... - The Associated Press

London/Kyiv As global political and business leaders prepare to meet in London for the Ukraine Recovery Conference (Weds 21 Thurs 22), the internationally renowned British landmine clearance charity The HALO Trust is urging governments and the private sector to join forces in the mission to clear the country of landmines.

HALO is warning that reconstruction efforts depend on removing explosives from up to 30 per cent of Ukraines territory, including 1000 km of a densely fortified frontline. This will require a multi-year effort to reverse more than $135bn of damage to infrastructure including housing, transport, energy and prime agriculture land.

Ukraine faces the heaviest landmine contamination the world has seen since the Second World War, according to the UK-based charity. Its teams are clearing landmines from liberated territories across five oblasts, including areas flooded by the Kakhovka dam breach. HALO deminers found over 5000 landmines across Kharkiv and Mykolaiv oblasts in the last eight weeks alone.

JAMES COWAN, CEO OF HALO SAID:

The HALO Trust is training the largest group of deminers in its history to clear the biggest battlefield in Europe, so that farmers can plant their crops and restore vital grain supplies. Even as the fighting continues, we have mobilised a demining operation run by Ukrainians for Ukrainians, symbolising the spirit of partnership required for the countrys long-term recovery. There are now 800 men and women around the country, clearing anti-tank mines daily from valuable farmland. They come from all walks of life and their courage and determination is remarkable.

YULIA SVYRYDENKO, FIRST DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER MINISTER OF ECONOMY OF UKRAINE, SAID:

The government of Ukraine plans to return over 470,000 hectares of the most valuable agricultural land to productive use within four years. This is a difficult but realistic task. Both government and non-government operators have surveyed more than 120,000 hectares to date. Their coordinated work continues at this very moment. With the support of international partners, we will strengthen the demining capacity of our government institutions. We are grateful for the intentions of reliable partners such as The HALO Trust to strengthen their capabilities in Ukraine because there are even more ambitious goals ahead. Our plan is to survey, clear and return to use most of all potentially contaminated areas within ten years.

The reconstruction effort aims to rebuild an economy in which Gross Domestic Product shrank by 29.2 per cent in 2022. The agricultural sector has suffered $4.3 bn of estimated damages, reaching nearly 15 per cent of Ukraines capital stock. The combined estimated value of livestock loss damages exceeds $136m, and the estimated cost of replacing and repairing the damaged machinery is over $926.1m.

HALO is surveying land in recently liberated areas using methodology it has tried and tested in over 30 countries during its 35-year history and increasing its mechanisation to achieve high rates of clearance. Since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, The HALO Trust has cleared 150 hectares of land and found 10,000 mines and other items of ordnance, protecting lives and livelihoods.

The knock-on effect of landmines on Ukrainian soil is increasing food insecurity in some of the worlds most vulnerable regions. Ukraine is typically responsible for six per cent of all calories traded on the global market, and along with Russia accounts for a quarter of global wheat and grains exports and 80 per cent of sunflower oil exports.

JAMES COWAN, CEO OF HALO, CONCLUDED:

HALO is working with the Ukrainian government and a growing coalition of private and public partners. With greater investment we could clear more land faster, helping to meet the Ukrainian governments ambition to get its crops back on the global market. The Ukraine Recovery Conference must signal the start of an unprecedented effort to restore an industry that feeds the rest of the world.

References

For estimates of size of contaminated areas in Ukraine, see Demining Ukraine report by Globesec

For impact on GDP and estimation cost of war damage see Ukraine Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment

For estimated cost of damage to agricultural sector see Draft Ukraine Recovery Plan from the Audit of War Damage Working Group

For estimated cost of livestock loss and machinery repair see Ukraine agricultural sector has lost $4.3 billion from war damage

For estimates on loss of sunflower oil industry see One Year On: The Economic Costs and Lessons of the Russo-Ukrainian war

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Clear Landmines To Rebuild Ukraine And Feed The World - Ukraine - ReliefWeb