Russia’s Defense Ministry has published footage of a Kamov Ka-52 missile attack against a Ukrainian piece of armor in Zaporozhye.
The video shows the helicopter firing a single Vikhr (Whirlwind) laser-guided missile at the stationary vehicle, with gunship’s targeting screen showing the missile’s approach.
“So what?” an operator is heard saying, asking whether the missile had hit its target. “It’s flying, it’s flying,” a second operator says. “Bullseye,” he adds as the armored vehicle explodes moments later.
The Vikhr is designed specifically to engage heavily armored targets, including vehicles fitted with reactive armor. The missile is equipped with a multistage HEAT and separate fragmentation warhead, allowing it to literally burn through heavy armored plates, entering the enclosed space inside the vehicle and detonating. This explains the multi-second delay in the video between the moment the missile impacted its target and the explosion from inside.
Ka-52s can carry up to 12 Vikhr missiles at a time. Overwhelming Russian air superiority and the falling availability of NATO-provided air defense systems as they are expended and destroyed have been cited as major factors in why the Ukrainian military’s summer counteroffensive has failed to gain ground, with Ukrainian Army sources and Western officials saying Russian helicopter gunships are often able to operate with almost complete impunity even in enemy territory.