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Aircraft And Military Development & Applications

The Kamov Ka-50 "Black Shark" is a single-seat Russian attack helicopter with the distinctive coaxial rotor system of the Kamov design bureau. It was designed in the 1980s and adopted for service in the Russian army in 1995. It is manufactured by the Progress company in Arsenyev. It is used as a heavily armed scout helicopter. It is the world's first operational helicopter with a rescue ejection system.

Maximum speed: 390 km/h (242.33 mph) Maiden flight: 17 Jun 1982 Length: 52.49 ft Wingspan: 47.57 ft Passengers: 2 Introduced: 28 Aug 1995

The Kamov Ka-50 “Black Shark” is a single-seat Russian attack helicopter with the distinctive coaxial rotor system of the Kamov design bureau. It was designed in the 1980s and adopted for service in the Russian army in 1995.

The Ka-50 was designed to be small, fast and agile to improve survivability and lethality. For minimal weight and size (thus maximum speed and agility) it was uniquely among gunships to be operated by a single pilot only. The Russian designed Ka-50 Hokum also can carry 24 ?Vikhr? missiles, four 20-round rocket pods, or a mixture. The Hokum also can carry the AA-11/R-73 Archer air-to-air missiles, which makes the Hokum a very capable threat against opposing attack helicopters. The 30mm 2A42 is also mounted on the Hokum, albeit more like a fighter?s cannon. The Hokum?s top speed is 350 kilometers per hour, and it has a combat radius of 250 kilometers.

The Kamov Ka-50 "Black Shark" is a single-seat Russian attack helicopter with the distinctive coaxial rotor system of the Kamov design bureau. It was designed in the 1980s and adopted for service in the Russian army in 1995. It is manufactured by the Progress company in Arsenyev. It is being used as a heavily armed scout helicopter. During the late 1990s, Kamov and Israel Aerospace Industries developed a tandem-seat cockpit version, the Kamov Ka-50-2 "Erdogan", to compete in Turkey's attack helicopter competition. Kamov also designed another two-seat variant, the Kamov Ka-52 "Alligator".
The Ka-50 and its two-seat version Ka-52, are high-performance combat helicopters with day and night capability, high survivability and fire power, to defeat air targets and heavily armoured tanks armed with air defence weapons. It was designed to be small, fast and agile to improve survivability and lethality.

The coaxial rotor design provides a hovering ceiling of 4,000 m and vertical rate of climb of 10 m a second at an altitude of 2,500 m. The rotor blades are made from polymer materials. The coaxial-rotor configuration results in moments of inertia values relative to vertical and lateral axes between 1.5 and two times less than the values found in single-rotor helicopters with tail rotors. Absence of the tail rotor enables the helicopter to perform flat turns within the entire flight speed range. A maximum vertical load factor of 3.5 g combined with low moments of inertia give the Ka-50 a high level of agility. Flight systems include inertial navigation system (INS), autopilot and head-up display (HUD). Sensors include forward-looking infrared (FLIR) and terrain-following radar.The Kamov Ka-50 is also fitted with an electronic radio and sighting-piloting-navigating system allowing flights at day and night in VFR and IFR weather conditions. The novelty of this avionics is based on the system of precise target designation with digital coded communication system, which ensures the exchange of information (precise enemy coordinates) between helicopters flying far apart from each other and ground command posts as well. Ka-52 is also equipped with a "Phazotron" cockpit radio-locator allowing flights in adverse meteorological conditions and at night.

The necessary information acquired by this radio-locator is transferred to the cockpit's multi-functional display screen. For conducting a fight, both pilots are equipped with range-finders built-in their helmets and they can use night vision eyepieces for night flights.

For its own protection, Ka-50 is fitted with a radar warning receiver, electronic warfare system and chaff and flare dispenser. The dispensers are placed in aerodynamic containers fitted at wings’ ends. Each casing (container) contains two dispensers with 32 x 26 mm countermeasures each. The whole system works on principle of evaluated response based on infrared or electronic impulse irradiation. Extensive all-round armour installed in the cockpit protects the pilot against 12.7 mm armour-piercing bullets and 23 mm projectile fragments. The rotor blades are rated to withstand several hits of ground-based automatic weapons.

General characteristics
Crew: 1
Length: 16.0 m (52 ft)
Rotor diameter: 14.5 m (48 ft)
Height: 4.93 m (16.2 ft)
Disc area: 330.3 m² (3,555 sq ft)
Empty weight: 7,700 kg (17,000 lb)
Loaded weight: 9,800 kg (21,600 lb) , 10,400 kg (22,900 lb) for Ka-52
Max. takeoff weight: 10,800 kg (23,800 lb)
Powerplant: 2 × Klimov VK-2500 turboshaft, 2,400 shp (1,800 kW) each

Role: Attack helicopter, scout helicopter
National origin: Soviet Union / Russia
Manufacturer: Kamov
First flight: Ka-50: 17 June 1982
Ka-52: 25 June 1997
Introduction: 28 August 1995
Status: In service
Primary users: Russian Air Force (VVS)
Egyptian Air Force
Produced: 1990-present
Number built: Ka-50: 32
Ka-52: 90+
Unit cost: 500 million rubles (approx. $16 million) as of May 2011
Developed from: Kamov V-80

Performance
Never exceed speed: 350 km/h (220 mph; 190 kn) in dive
Maximum speed: 315 km/h (196 mph; 170 kn) in level flight
Cruise speed: 270 km/h (170 mph; 150 kn)
Range: 545 km (339 mi; 294 nmi)
Combat radius: 470 km (290 mi; 250 nmi)
Ferry range: 1,160 km (720 mi; 630 nmi) with 4 drop tanks
Service ceiling: 5,500 m (18,000 ft) operational, 4,000 m (13,000 ft) hover
Rate of climb: 12 m/s (2,400 ft/min)
Disc loading: 30 kg/m² (6.1 lb/sq ft)
Power/mass: 0.33 kW/kg (0.203 hp/lb)

Armament
Guns: 1× mobile semi-rigid 30 mm Shipunov 2A42 cannon (460 rounds total, dual feeding AP or HE-Frag)
Hardpoints: 4 (6 on Ka-52) under-wing hardpoints, plus 2 on wingtips for countermeasures or air-to-air missiles with a capacity of 2,000 kg and provisions to carry combinations of:
Rockets: 80 × 80 mm S-8 rockets and 20 × 122 mm S-13 rocket,
Missiles: 2 × APU-6 Missile racks, able to accommodate a total of 12 × 9K121 Vikhr anti-tank missiles, Vympel R-73 (NATO: AA-11 Archer) air-to-air missiles, Kh-25 semi-active laser guided tactical air-to-ground missiles
Bombs: 4 × 250 kg (550 lb) bombs or 2 × 500 kg (1,100 lb) bombs,
Other: 23 mm UPK-23-250 gun pods (240 rounds each), 500 L (130 US gal) external fuel tanks. Reportedly, twin Igla light air-to-air missile launchers under each wingtip countermeasure pod (total 4 missiles).
Two pods on the wingtips with flare and chaff countermeasure dispensers, 4 UV-26 dispensers each (total 512 chaff/flare cartridges in each pod)

4-Kamov-KA-50-KA-52