Russian attack helicopters showed up in force on the front lines and have been putting dents in Ukraine's armored assaults

Business Insider via Yahoo ^ | June 22nd, 2023 | Ryan Pickrell

[Mariner]

Ukraine's armed forces are gaining ground and pressing ahead with counteroffensive operations, but the Russians are putting up a fight and deploying aviation assets to the front lines in ways they haven't been until recently to blunt Ukrainian efforts to retake captured territory.

Ukrainian forces are pushing beyond the protection of some of their fixed air defenses without the kind of mobile air defenses they really need, and Russian attack helicopters, like the Ka-52 Alligators able to do damage with its 30mm cannon or anti-tank missiles, are emerging as a threat to Ukraine's ground forces that must be quickly engaged with air-defense missiles before they can eliminate its heavy armor, such as tanks and infantry fighting vehicles.

Senior Ukrainian military officials have raised concerns about Russia's "aviation and artillery superiority" during the counteroffensive operations, which they have said are meeting "fierce fighting," and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told The BBC Wednesday the counteroffensive is currently moving "slower than desired."

In a recent intelligence update, Britain's defense ministry noted that "Russia has re-enforced its attack helicopter force in" southern Ukraine, giving the Russians an advantage in an area where tougher fights have been taking place.

A Ukrainian soldier told The Financial Times this week that Russian helicopter attacks on Ukraine's armored vehicles have proven to be a "very powerful technique" the Ukrainian forces have struggled to match with the capabilities available

[Spktyr]

The Soviets weren’t expecting Stingers and hadn’t seen their performance in the field at the time. They also had some fundamental design errors in their choppers (like glass cockpit windows) which they did rapidly fix. Lessons from that went into the design of later gear, and in turn the West got some ugly surprises in Syria via Turkey.

[PIF]

And more than 6 KA-52 denters and been terminally dented in return. And Russia has stopped using them and switched to using MiG-24 instead.

The UA does not have a choice. It must advance now, even without Western airframes. And so far its been successful with the destruction of 3X more vehicles than lost, and daily Russian troop losses at an extreme, while supply lines are being systematically destroyed.

[Mariner]

And your source for that data is Ukraine’s MoD.

[jmacusa]

Those that weren’t used have most likely ended up on the black market.