>That video *is* of KA-52s in combat in Syria. They’re reportedly still being used in combat there.
Sorry, should have been more precise. I was wondering how well it handled small arms fire in combat. That video was an attack run without anyone firing back from what I could tell. Interesting rocket attack angle and that’s one heck of a nimble chopper.
There’ve been no KA-52 losses as of yet, so apparently they’re doing reasonably well. There have been 5 Mi-24 variants lost , but only two of them were Russian operated and one of those may have been due to friendly fire or weapons malfunction - cause is unclear. The other was hit by enemy fire (probable recoilless rifle hit) after making an emergency landing due to mechanical issues - the crew survived and made it back safe. The Russians also lost one of their Mi-28 “Apache-ski” units to mechanical malfunction.
Also, they have definitely been getting fired on, mostly by (ironically) Russian .51 cal and larger heavy machine guns and AA guns. There’s some video floating around of rebels taking a KA type and an Mi-24 under fire with a heavy machine gun from below. You can see the sparks of hits on the bellies of the choppers but they seem completely unaffected. Considering that the rotor head and cockpit of the Mi-24 is proof against 20mm/23mm fire and the fuselage and rotor head of the KA is rated against 23mm, that’s rather unsurprising. The entire fuselage of the Mi-24 is proof against .50 BMG/.51 Russian.