The crew designates a target on radar, fires the missile and immediately dives and flies and away in order to dodge return fire.īy the same token, the risk gunship crews face over Ukraine explains why the Ukrainian crews in particular have adopted an extreme tactic. Army mostly uses Hellfire anti-tank missiles, which have a “fire and forget” mode. No, it’s the technology-and the tactics it dictates-that makes Ka-52s so vulnerable. Defense Ministry also attributed extreme Ka-52 losses to a dearth of top cover from Russian fighters, but it’s not apparent that exposing a fighter to the same air-defenses that threaten the helicopters would result in fewer shoot-downs, overall. And that can take tens of seconds-an eternity when Ukrainian air-defenses are nearby. The problem is, the firing helicopter can’t move until the missile hits. The missile is a “beam-rider.” A gunship crew hovers a few hundred feet off the ground, shoots a laser beam at the target from as far as six miles away, then fires the missile, which follows the laser all the way to the target.
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