Ka-50

Ka-50

Ka-50

USSR

VI Rank

Battle rating:

AB	RB	SB
10.7	11.0	10.3

Class:

PREMIUM

Attack helicopter

Utility helicopter

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Description

The Ka-50 is a gift rank VI Soviet helicopter with a battle rating of 10.7 (AB), 11.0 (RB), and 10.3 (SB). It was introduced in Update 1.93 "Shark Attack".

General info

Flight performance

Describe how the helicopter behaves in the air. Speed, manoeuvrability, acceleration and allowable loads - these are the most important characteristics of the vehicle.

Characteristics
Stock
Max Speed (km/h at 1,000 m)		Max altitude (meters)
AB	RB
???	???	5400
Upgraded
Max Speed (km/h) (km/h at 1,000 m)		Max altitude (meters)
AB	RB
???	310	5100

Survivability and armour

Survivability:

-due to low weight this helicopter is fast and agile, easy to dodge even the missiles from ADATS or incoming fighters on head-on

-passive radar informs you of presence ( distance and direction) of active radars ( enemies AA, jets with radar), also with sounds (beeping)

-MAW ( missile approach warning system) automatically deploy false targets - flares (128pcs) and inform you of incoming missiles ( even in SB)

-twin rotor ( without tail rotor) helps you to keep control over your helicopter even in case your tail is destroyed

-night vision device (only image intensifiers without thermal sight)

-ATGM with active radius of 10km (helps you to keep out of range of most AA, except ADATS and 2K22 Tunguska)

Armour:

-20mm plates of aluminium alloy ( see picture) and 22mm of bulletproof glass

Armaments

Offensive armament

1x 30mm 2A42 cannon with 460 pcs of ammo mounted on the rear side of the fuselage can be equipped with mixed belt, belt for air targets or ground targets.

-default (mixed) belt containt AP-T/HEF-I/HEF-I/AP-T/AP-T; max penetration on 100m - 62mm

-belt for ground targets containt AP-T/APDS/APDS/APDS/APDS; max penetration on 100m - 81mm

-belt for air targets containt HEF-T/HEF-I/HEF-I/HEF-I/HEF-I; max penetration is 3mm ( any distance)

AP-T -- armour-piercing tracer

HEF-I -- hight explosive fragmentation - incendiary (self-explosing)

APDS -- armour-piercing discarding sabot

HEF-T -- hight explosive fragmentation - tracer (self-explosing)

due to the fact, that flying over battlefield is suicide mission and most of the time you will be sniping targets from distance, belt for ground targets is practicaly useless.

Your only targets for your cannon will be only air targets ( planes and other helicopters) so pick default belt of belt for air targets, your choice, but keep in mind, that some targets could be armored

Suspended armament

Ka-50 could be equipped with following armanent on 4 pylons total ( 2 on each wing):

- 6x 9K127 Vikhr ATGM (range:10km, TNT equivalent: 5,16 kg, max speed:600 m/s, tandem warhead with 1000mm penetration of armour after ERA with proximity fuse) 6pcs on each pylon - could be equipped only outer pylons - max 12pcs)

- 2x 9M39 Igla A2A missile with IR guiding, lock-on range 6km from rear aspect, 4km on all aspect. max speed= 1000m/s and max. G-load is 18 G. ECCM- yes, 2pcs each pylon- curently could be equipped only 1 outer pylon in exchange for 6x Vikhr ATGM

-20x S-8KO unguided rockets (speed: 610m/s; TNT equivalent: 1,32 kg; max armour penetration: 400mm), 20pcs on each pylon, max 80pcs total ( 4 pylons)

-23mm Gsh-23-2 cannon with 250 ammo, could be equipped all 4 pylons ( 1000 ammo with 4 doubled cannons in total)

ECCM - electronig counter counter measure ( missile is imune to interferencing of ECM- electronic counter measures of enemy targets)

Usage in battles

most preferable playstyle for this helicpter should be firing ATGM from long range since Vikhr has the longests range in the game (10km).

the only other 2 vehicles has the shooting range of 10km which is ADATS and 2K22 Tunguska. Since Tunguska in usually in your team ( if you dont get mixxed battle) your only enemy is ADATS and/ or enemy planes.

vs. ADATS - from the begining, try to keep ADATS from your distance 10km + and focus on closer targets. For this, reach batlefield that the middle ( usually some point to capture is cca 9,5km from you). If you have already reached some ADATS within 10km, be prepared that he already know about you and is firing. If you see incoming missile begin avoid maneuvers. To do this, turn-off hover mode and sharply turn the Ka-50 to one side ( left or right) or do the barel-roll. Never fire for ADATS after he fired first, his missiles are twice as fast as yours 1200m/s vs 600m/s. To eliminate ADATS, lock-on target in gunner sight and fire. if you see incoming fire, switch to 3rd view/ pilot view and begin evasive maneuvers as mentioned above, but keep in mind that the target have to stay in your targeting view so your ATGM could hit the target while maneuvering.

vs. planes ( jets) - on head on, you can lock them and try to fire Vikhr ( it has proximity fuse) or lock them with Igla A2A (and fire only if distance is at least 1km+). If they survived and aproached their firing range, begin evasive maneuvers. Simply turn on one side ( left or right) or do the barel-roll. this is the only time you could use your right side mounted 30mm cannon, so use it and fire for enemy while maneuvering. If enemy passed you ( and is still alive) turn around ASAP and lock him with your Igla A2A missiles and fire. In 99% cases this should be enough to send any plane down.

If you dont have Igla missiles, just wait for him and repeat the process mentioned above until one of you will die.

Pros and cons

Pros:

-has one of the best ATGM in the game ( 10km range with 1000mm penetration after ERA and with proximity fuse), able to fire after air targets

-fast and agile, max reached speed 330km/h+ in level flight ( min fuel, payload 6x Vikhr, 2x igla and 2x Gsh-23-2 cannons in RB*)

-twin rotor concept allow you to survive even after your tail will be destroyed

*note of author- I preffer canons before unguided rockets because they are much lighter and unguided rockets are useless because you have to come over the battlefield which is imposible on BR 10.0

Cons:

-poor choices of payload. If you want A2A Igla missiles, you have to sacrifice 6x Vikhr so basicaly you have to choose between 12 Vikhr and no defense vs air targets or just 6 Vikhr

-inner pylons could be equipped only with unguided rockets or 23mm cannons.

-absence of thermal sight. All-weather model with thermal sight was Ka-50N, which is not curently in the game

History

Describe the history of the creation and combat usage of the helicopter in more detail than in the introduction. If the historical reference turns out to be too long, take it to a separate article, taking a link to the article about the vehicle and adding a block "/History" (example: https://wiki.warthunder.com/(Vehicle-name)/History) and add a link to it here using the main template. Be sure to reference text and sources by using <ref></ref>, as well as adding them at the end of the article with <references />. This section may also include the vehicle's dev blog entry (if applicable) and the in-game encyclopedia description (under === In-game description ===, also if applicable).

Media

Images

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See also

Links to the articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:

• reference to the series of the helicopter;
• links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.

External links

• [Development] Ka-50 "Black Shark"

Kamov Design Bureau
Attack	Ka-29 · Ka-50 · Ka-52

USSR helicopters
Attack
Hound	Mi-4AV
Hip	Mi-8AMTSh · Mi-8TV
Hind	Mi-24A · ▂Mi-24D · Mi-24P · Mi-24V · Mi-35M
Havoc	Mi-28N · Mi-28NM
Helix	Ka-29
Hokum	Ka-50 · Ka-52