Arbalet for Alligator

The government trials of Russia’s new attack helicopter – Kamov Ka-52, dubbed Alligator, will be finished in 2010, promised the Air Force Commander Col. Gen. Alexander Zelin in early August. In September the helicopter should start flight testing with its new onboard Arbalet radar station.
The twin seat Ka-52 was developed in the early 1990s on the basis of the single-seat Kamov Ka-50 Black Shark assault helicopter after it became clear that Russian Air Force want to have a new assault helicopter with two pilots, so Ka-50 is losing to Mil Mi-28N. The first Ka-52 prototype made its maiden flight in 1997.
In 2003 the military selected Mi-28N as a main attack helicopter obviously because of its better armor protection. Although Ka-50 has armor equal to the Mil machine, Kamov designers had to sacrifice it developing Ka-52 in order keep the take-off weight at 10,000 kg mark. The Kamov designers admit that Ka-52’s pilots have protective armor only from the back of their seats.  
But the Air Force found a special role for the Kamov helicopter. As the Air Force’s Chief of Armaments Maj. Gen. Oleg Barmin explained that Ka-52 is suited more for combat missions in urban terrain and in mountains as well as for air surveillance and target detection.
Kamov designers stress that Ka-52 is not a simple two-seat modification of the Black Shark but a deeply modernized version. The helicopter is powered by a pair of new Klimov 2500 hp VK-2500 engines. Agility is achieved by the use of coaxial rotor design. It enables the helicopter to fly sideward with a speed of 80 km/h and backward at 90 km/h. Coaxial rotors also increase the vertical speed and the helicopter’s ceiling because, as one of Kamov designer explained, the lack of tail rotor allows to direct all power of the engines to the main rotors. During the flight tests Ka-52 demonstrated a vertical lift speed of 30 m/s.
The Alligator is armed with 30-mm 2A42 gun and 12 Vikhr (AT-12) laser-guided antitank missiles. The Kamov designers say the next step may be the introduction of new Hermes-A ATGMs with self homing device that has a range of 15-20 km compared to 10 km at Vikhr. But the military is likely to unify the weaponry with Mi-28N and to use radio-guided Ataka-V missiles. Ka-52 can also carry 4 Igla-V or 2 R-73 air-to-air missiles as well as 80-mm unguided rockets.
Ka-52 completed the first phase of the government testing at the end of 2008. At that time the military approved the production of pre-series batch of 12 helicopters at Arseniev-based Progress facility. According to Barmin, the exact number of helicopters to be purchased through 2020 is to not specified yet, but initial plans calls for more than 25 rotorcraft.
So far the main disappointment for the military was the lack of Arbalet radar station at Ka-52 prototypes. Now the problem is solved as the first radar was to be installed at the helicopter at the end of August. According to the Phazotron-NIIR Corporation, the designer of Arbalet, the delays was caused by the decision to relocate Ka-52’s GOES electro-optical sensor system in the nose cone what takes some space earlier assigned for Arbalet antenna. So the Phazotron specialists have to lift the antenna in the upper section of the nose cone and make its shape more elliptical, explained Phazotron chief designer Yury Gouskov. "Now the radar bean became wider and is capable to cover broader area", he told.
The 8-mm wavelength Arbalet unified radar can detect and track moving tank-sized targets at up to 30km away. It can also detect airborne targets including planes, helicopters and missiles. The Arbalet will be integrated into a new Argument-2000 onboard navigation and flight and weapons control complex that enables the helicopter to operate round-o-clock in all weather condition. Ka-52’s communication system enables to exchange the information and distribute targets between other helicopters of the group on the battlefield turning the Alligator into a command aircraft.