Ka‑52 Alligator downed by own rocket artillery: A historic mishap

The war in Ukraine is full of astonishing events that will go down in military history. One such event, alongside hitting a submarine with a cruise missile, is the shooting down of a Ka-52 Alligator helicopter by a rocket artillery launcher. We present the performance of this machine and explain how it's possible.

A post appeared on Telegram by a Russian pilot who boasted about performing evasive manoeuvres against the salvo firing of unguided rockets from a BM-27 Uragan launcher.

The Russian admits that he managed to survive the activity of his rocket artillery "pretending to be anti-aircraft," but he cannot say the same for others. He indicates that he knows of at least one Ka-52 Alligator helicopter destroyed this way.

This shows the colossal communication problems, as on the return route of helicopters or aircraft from an attack, there should not be any cases of salvos being fired from rocket artillery or the shooting down of their own machines by their air defence, which has occurred multiple times.

The Ka-52 Alligator is the latest Russian attack helicopter, with a unique design on a global scale. This refers to the counter-rotating rotor system, which means that the Ka-52 Alligator helicopters do not need a tail rotor.

Additionally, another unique feature is the side-by-side seating of the pilots, unlike in other attack helicopters such as the AH-1Z Viper, where one pilot sits above the other.

These helicopters have been extensively used in Ukraine since the beginning of the war, accounting for nearly half of the documented Russian helicopter losses. According to the analyst team at Oryxspioenkop, as of 20 July, 138 helicopters were lost, of which 60 were Alligators, out of nearly 200 produced. However, it should be noted that the actual number of downed Russian helicopters may be higher as not every shoot-down or wreck is photographed.

The Ka-52 Alligator is typically equipped with a side-mounted 30 mm 2A42 automatic cannon and six hardpoints on the stub wings. Two outer ones are for electronic warfare (EW) pods or launchers with 9K38 Igla, and the remaining four are for carrying heavier armaments. These include laser-guided AT-12 Vikhr anti-tank missiles, anti-radar Kh-25MP (AS-12 Kegler) missiles, bombs, or S-8 unguided rocket pods.

The Ka-52 Alligator helicopters have fallen victim not only to dedicated handheld anti-aircraft systems such as FIM-92 Stinger, PPZR Piorun, Strela, 9K38 Igla or 9K333 Verba, Mistral, Starstreak, or Martlet, but also to much more exotic means of destruction.

This category includes, for example, the Stugna-P anti-tank guided missile or the aforementioned 22-centimetre (220 mm) unguided rocket of the BM-27 Uragan system. The 9M27 rocket has a straightforward design, containing, depending on the version, a high-explosive fragmentation or cluster warhead that weighs about 90 kilograms (200 pounds).

Purposely hitting a moving helicopter with such a rocket has the same chance as winning a few million pounds in the lottery, theoretically possible, although more a matter of coincidence and luck.