In the early 1980s, while the Ka-50 was facing off against the Mi-28 in state acceptance trials, the Kamov design team came up with a special variant of their helicopter: A dedicated "battlefield support" with more weapon hardpoints than the Ka-50, far more advanced optics and sensors, and an air-to-ground radar for surveying the battlefield. This new helicopter had so many different systems to operate, that it required a second crew member, therefore a tandem "side-by-side" cockpit was chosen for multiple reasons, one of which was to differentiate it from the Mi-24 and Mi-28 cockpit designs where the pilot sat behind the gunner. The finalized design of the new aircraft, now named the Ka-52, would receive two more wing-mounted hardpoints than its Ka-50 predecessor, in addition to a dedicated multimode A2G radar, and a day/night thermal sight (both of which the Ka-50 lacked). To keep flight performance on par with the Ka-50, the cockpit armour and amount of ammo in the cannon was greatly reduced, and a new VK-2500 engine was developed for this helicopter. The first phase of trial testing was completed in 2008, and serial production of the Ka-52 was officially greenlit from that point as it entered service with the Russian VVS.

The Ka-52 "Alligator" (NATO reporting name: Hokum-B), introduced in Update 1.97 "Viking Fury", has similar weapons to the Ka-50, including the infamous 9K127 Vikhr ATGMs with excellent range and proximity fuses, and superior electronics with little impact on the great flight performance. The Alligator is a well-rounded attack helicopter that can seek and destroy ground targets and still pose a considerable threat to aircraft. The Ka-52 is also armed with a powerful 2A42 cannon with strong APDS belts, and the unguided SO-13OF rockets which can almost always destroy a tank in a single hit due to their massive HE payload. All in all, the Ka-52 is one of the best helicopters in all of War Thunder, and acts as a great reward at the end of the line for players who were patient enough to research their way up to it.