Ka-52

Ka-52
Faction	Russian Armed Forces
Type	Heavy Attack Helicopter
Seats	2 seats: 1× Pilot 1× Gunner
Item capacity	Max: 3× Weapons 20× Magazines 1× Backpack
Top speed	~ 230 km/h
Fuel capacity	1000 fuel units
Primary armament	Main: 1× 2A42 12× Vikhr 9K121 2× S-8
Secondary armament	Defensive: 120× Countermeasures (Flares/Chaff)
Variants	None
Games

The Ka-52 is a heavy attack helicopter used exclusively by the Russian Armed Forces in ArmA 2.

Overview

• Role:
  • Heavy gunship

«

The Kamov Ka-52 Alligator (NATO reporting name: Hokum B) is a Russian made two-seat attack helicopter. It is designed to detect targets and redistribute the target information among combat helicopters. The Ka-52 is equipped with dual-antenna radar and is armed with semi-rigid 30 mm Shipunow 2A42 cannon; and with 12 laser-guided Vikhr anti-tank missiles. Armoury Description

»

Design

The Ka-52 is a two-seater version of the Ka-50. Like its Cold War-era predecessor, it is designed to be a multi-role all-weather attack helicopter that is capable of operating in both daytime and at night.

Armament
By default, the Ka-52 is armed with a 30 mm autocannon fixed to the right side of the fuselage, twin 80 mm rocket pods, as well as wire-guided anti-tank guided missiles.

Unlike other attack helicopters, the Ka-52 does not have a nose-mounted turret and has all of its armament attached onto stub wings fitted to both sides of the fuselage. The Ka-52's 2A42 30 mm cannon is pre-loaded with interchangeable belts of either 230-round high-explosive (HE) or 230-round armour-piercing (AP) shell "magazines" (up to 460 rounds in total).

The twin rocket pods on the other hand, each contain 20 HE rockets while the outermost pylons have Vikhr ATGMs carried on 6-round racks for a combined total of 40 rockets and 12 missiles (respectively).

Whether it's a helicopter or a tank, the Ka-52's Vikhrs can take down any kind of target with a little bit of manual guidance.

Features
One notable aspect of the Ka-52's armament suite is its Vikhr ATGMs. Although they are primarily intended for use against tanks and other ground vehicles, their beam-riding capabilities allow the gunner to (under the right circumstances) guide the missile right into other helicopters either manually or via laser lock-on. Assuming that the gunner maintains a steady aim until the missile connects with the target, the Ka-52 is more than capable of taking down enemy helicopters at low airspeeds.

Mobility
The Ka-52 is fairly fast for a helicopter of its size thanks to its powerful engines. Manoeuvrability-wise, its agility is almost on par with that of the smaller AH-1Z, though it will have a little more difficulty maintaining its speed on sharp turns.

Drawbacks
The Ka-52 has two main weaknesses: it lacks access to missiles with autonomous guidance and does not have a nose-mounted gun turret. Whereas the gunner on other attack helicopters (like the AH-64D) can engage targets independently of the aircraft's heading, the Ka-52's 2A42 has a very limited rotation arc since it is fitted onto the starboard side of the fuselage as opposed to being mounted onto a proper turret.

This prevents the gunner from being able to attack a target that's behind the Ka-52, thereby forcing the pilot to turn the entire aircraft around in order to return fire. Likewise, attempting to maintain a steady aim on a stationary target whilst the Ka-52 is on the move is nigh impossible since the 2A42 isn't stabilised.

Crew Capacity
The Ka-52 has a maximum seating capacity of two for a crew that consists of the pilot and a gunner, who sit side-by-side in a tandem arrangement. Ka-52s are not able to transport passengers.

Camouflage

• Black
• Woodland

1/2

• Black: Pattern-less jet-black paint scheme.
• Woodland: Standard two-tone dark green/olive woodland camouflage scheme.

Protection: Hitpoints

The Ka-52 has a base armour value of 65.

LEGEND
Green = Hull
Orange = Engines
Maroon = Instruments
Yellow = Main rotors

Hull

The Ka-52's hull can withstand up to 65 points of damage. Depletion of its integrity will always result in a total loss.

Engines

The Ka-52's engines can only take a maximum of 16.25 points of damage before they fail. 100% of incoming damage to either engine will always be shared with the helicopter's main "health" pool. Destroying the engines has the potential to result in the helicopter's destruction if it is at or near critical "health" status.

Instruments

The Ka-52's flight instruments can take only 9.75 points of damage before they start failing. 100% of incoming damage will always be shared with the helicopter's main "health" pool. Destruction of the instruments also has the potential to cause the helicopter to explode if it is at critical "health" status.

Main rotors

The Ka-52's coaxial rotors can each withstand up to 19.5 points of damage before they fail. 30% of incoming damage will always be shared with the helicopter's main "health" pool. Destroying the main rotors will not cause a total loss by itself. However, it is possible for this to happen if the Ka-52 is at critical "health" status.

Protection: Armour

LEGEND
Green = glass_armored.bisurf
Teal = iron.bisurf
Purple = ironplate.bisurf
Maroon = metalplate.bisurf
Yellow = plexiplate.bisurf

.bisurf Parameter	glass_armored.bisurf	iron.bisurf	ironplate.bisurf	metalplate.bisurf	plexiplate.bisurf
Density	2400	7800	7800	7800	1180
Thickness	N/A; based on vehicle fire geometry thickness	N/A; based on vehicle fire geometry thickness	5	2	2
bulletPenetrability	50	20	200	200	300
bulletPenetrabilityWithThickness	N/A; not used by glass_armored.bisurf	N/A; not used by iron.bisurf	10	10	150

The Ka-52's hull and various components are protected by a mix of metals and plexiglass:

• The cockpit's windows are mostly made out of panes of (non-bullet resistant) plexiglass that have a thickness of 2 millimetres. Only the front two windows of the cockpit are protected by bullet-resistant glass panes.
• Its engines and the stub wing pylon-mounted rocket pods/missile racks are made out of iron.
• Not including its tail rudder, the nose, stabiliser panels, and its stub wings, the majority of the Ka-52's fuselage is protected by a plate of iron that has a thickness of 5 millimetres.
• The nose, tail rudder, stub wings, stabiliser panels, coaxial rotors, and frontal aspect of the cockpit are protected by metal armour plates that have a thickness of 2 millimetres.

It should be noted that the cockpit's windows are not fully bullet-resistant. Only the front two windows are actually bullet-resistant and are capable of blocking small arms fire from calibres up to and including 7.62 mm (12.7 mm/.50 cal bullets can still penetrate these windows).

However, the panes will eventually shatter after multiple direct hits from large calibre rounds. Once shattered, they will no longer shield the crew from small arms fire. Likewise, the other windows (side/top) cannot block bullet projectiles at all as they are not made out of bullet-resistant glass.

Armament

NOTE: For specifics on the 2A42's munitions, see its related section listed here.

The gunner position controls the 2A42 autocannon and Vikhr 9K121 missiles while the pilot maintains control of the S-8 rocket pods:

2A42

General-purpose 30 mm autocannon. It can load and fire either HE or AP-type shells.

It can toggle between two modes with different fire rates:

• 200 rpm: Fire rate of 200 rounds per minute
• 550 rpm: Fire rate of ~ 549 rounds per minute

Regardless of the chosen firemode, the 2A42 has a dispersion spread of 0.0005 rad. There is no delay for swapping between munition types; the reloading process is instantaneous even if a belt runs out of ammunition.

Manual zeroing is available, starting from a minimum of 100 metres up to a maximum of 2,000 metres (100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, 800, 900, 1000, 1100, 1200, 1300, 1400, 1500, 1600, 1700, 1800, 1900, 2000). By default, it is set to a zeroing of 600 metres. Horizontally, the gun turret can be rotated up to a maximum of 9 degrees (starboard) and 2 degrees (port). Vertical limits are restricted to a depression of 37 degrees and an elevation of just 3 degrees.

Vikhr 9K121

Parameter	Value
Base damage value	800
Splash damage value	20
Warhead type	High-Explosive Anti-Tank
Blast radius (metres)	2
Launch velocity (m/s)	0
Maximum speed (m/s)	600

Air-to-ground anti-tank missiles. Primarily guided via SACLOS up to a maximum distance of 8,000 metres. Can alternately utilise laser guidance.

There is a forced delay of 1 second between missile launches. Vikhr missiles are always soft launched. They need at least 2 seconds of flight time to be able to attain a top speed of up to 600 m/s. The missile's warhead has a blast radius of 2 metres.

The Vikhr's seeker technically has a 20% chance to lose lock to defensive countermeasures. However, because the Vikhr does not have infrared guidance, it can only lose lock if the laser spot disappears (if locking on via laser) or if the gunner fails to maintain a steady aim with the turret's optics (if being controlled by SACLOS).

S-8

Parameter	Value
Base damage value	210
Splash damage value	40
Warhead type	High-Explosive
Blast radius (metres)	15
Launch velocity (m/s)	1
Maximum speed (m/s)	590

Unguided air-to-ground rockets. Fires 80 mm rockets fitted with high-explosive (HE) warheads.

The pods have a firing delay of 0.08 seconds between launches (750 RPM) and always launch S-8KOM rockets in pairs. The rockets are fired with an initial velocity of only 1 m/s but only need 0.69 seconds of flight time to attain a top speed of 590 m/s. The warheads have a blast radius of 15 metres.

Optics

Gunner

The gunner is the only crewman that has access to magnified optics. The turret's gunsight can switch between two fields-of-view: Wide (11.24x) and Narrow (37.03x).

The gunsight can toggle three vision modes: day, night, and black-/white-hot thermal vision. A laser rangefinder is also available.

Avionics

MAWS

The Ka-52 is equipped with a Missile Approach Warning System. Its MAWS will warn the crew if there are missiles that have launched and are flying directly towards the helicopter.

RWR

The Ka-52 is equipped with a Radar Warning Receiver. The RWR will alert the crew whenever they are being locked onto by a radar-based targeting system.

IWR

The Ka-52 does not have access to an Infrared Warning Receiver. The crew will not be alerted if an infrared-based targeting system is attempting to lock onto the helicopter.

LWR

The Ka-52 has access to a Laser Warning Receiver that will alert the crew whenever they are being locked onto by a laser-based targeting system.

Trivia

• The Ka-52 was one of the few helicopters from the initial release version of ArmA 2 that was "upgraded" with the ability to use countermeasure flares (as part of the Operation Arrowhead expansion pack). However, the gunner's terminal was not given the option to toggle a black-/white-hot thermal optic mode.
  • Thermal vision for the gunner's camera was finally enabled following the release of the Community Configuration Project updates. However, it is exclusively available to the Steam version only and cannot be utilised without patching non-Steam versions of ArmA 2 manually.
  • Control of the rocket pods were also transferred to the pilot's control following the update's release, leaving the gunner to handle the 2A42 and Vikhr ATGMs.
  • The CorePatch updates also changed the functionality of its Vikhr ATGMs. Prior to CorePatch, the Ka-52's Vikhrs were incorrectly depicted as infrared-guided missiles and could autonomously lock onto ground vehicles.
• Before the release of Patch 1.08, it was possible for ArmA 2 to crash to desktop whenever a human player manned the gunner's seat (AI units were not affected).
• 
  Its 30 mm cannon remains slightly bugged and cannot lock onto enemy helicopters like other autocannons are able to. This bug remains unpatched even with the latest Steam versions of the game.

Gallery

Config/script references

CfgAmmo CfgMagazines CfgWeapons CfgVehicles .bisurf .rvmat Formulae

External links

• Wikipedia: Ka-52 "Alligator"

See also

Aircraft of comparable role and configuration

• Mi-24 (Alternate Russian Armed Forces counterpart)
• AH-64D (U.S. Army/Heavy USMC counterpart)
• Ka-50 (Soviet predecessor, ArmA: CWA only)
• Mi-48 Kajman (Mediterranean CSAT/Russian Spetsnaz successor, ArmA 3 only)