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 The advanced Kamov Ka-52 multirole combat helicopter is to make its debut at the current Le Bourget air show. The Russian Army Aviation has been taken delivery of the type for two years, with yet another air base (in the south of Russia this time) having accepted a new batch recently.
The Ka-52 passed its official tests in 2011 and was cleared for service entry. The delivery of production-standard helicopters to the Russian Defence Ministry began in December 2010, when the first four Ka-52s built by the Russian Helicopters’ Progress company in Arsenyev were shipped to the Army Aviation Combat Training and Conversion Centre in Torzhok. In May 2011, the delivery started to Chernigovka air base in the Russian Far East, where the Russian Air Force had activated its first full-ledged 12-ship Ka-52 air squadron by the end of the year. In 2012, Chernigovka air base took delivery at least five more Ka-52s. In addition, five new Ka-52s built by Progress by late 2011 were fielded with CTCC in Torzhok early in 2012.
Overall, over 20 production-standard Ka-52s were manufactured in the town of Arsenyev during 2012. 16 of them were fielded earlier this year with a second RusAF airbase, the one in Korenovsk, Krasnodar Territory. Their final assembly and check flights prior to the delivery to the air base had been handled by Rostvertol JSC, to which premises they had been brought in semi-assembled from Aresenyev-based manufacturing plant by RusAF airlifters.
In 2011, Russian Helicopters announced that it had landed a long-term order from the Russian Defence Ministry for “more than 140” Ka-52 helicopters. The order shall keep the hands of Progress full virtually throughout the decade. To date, the plant has churned out upwards of 40 helicopters of the type.
What is more, the Ka-52 has been selected as the baseline attack helicopter to equip the air group of the Mistral amphibious assault ships the Russian Navy is buying from France. As far back as late November 2009, a Ka-52 prototype passed the tests of basing on deck of a French Navy Mistral in the course of her port call to Russia, and Kamov JSC is deriving a ship-based version designated as Ka-52K.
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