Russian helicopter shenanigans...

In Soviet Russia! Range sweeps you!


I don't know if they were somewhere they shouldn't have been or if there was a malfunction/safety failure on the crew or whatever. Those guys were definitely lucky as hell though.


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Lawman said:
In Soviet Russia! Range sweeps you!


I don't know if they were somewhere they shouldn't have been or if there was a malfunction/safety failure on the crew or whatever. Those guys were definitely lucky as hell though.


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It was a spectator parking lot. Me thinks the gunner got a lot too into the zone
 
Soku39 said:
The danger zone.
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IMG_2672.JPG
 
So the latest explanation that seems to be trending is a short circuit that resulted in a misfire.

While that's barely what I would call even an unofficial statement it is entirely plausible.

If the Russian helo crews follow similar range procedures to what we do the aircraft have to be switched from safe to armed as the aircraft maneuvers around the range based on the acceptable safety fan of the weapons. Additionally rockets are naturally touchy to electrical issues and there is a long history of misfires in military aviation. If in setting up the engagement the electrical system did somehow discharge when the gunner brought the aircraft to armed it's entirely possible that the rockets would/could discharge. There are a couple incidents in the Apache world (especially A model) where somebody pushed a benign button or auctioned a system and a weapon just launched/jettisoned/discharged.

It's however just as likely if not far more plausible/probable that somebody in that aircraft screwed up and discharged a weapon out of stupidity.... seen that happen too. We have a dual trigger set up in the front seat, one on the right grip (laser rangefinder designator) and one on the left handgrip (weapon release). There have been more than a few times somebody pulled the "loud laser" by mistake.


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Stratopilot said:
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Damn. I've had many exciting and interesting times at various air shows over the decades, but I've never had a gunship fire a fricking rocket at me. lol

Those guys are very lucky that they survived. Still not much owning up/info it seems.

"A public intelligence source cites one of the missiles on the KA-52 as being the Vikhr anti-armor missile and reports that the missiles are, “Virtually jam-proof and the system features automatic guidance to target.” The Kamov KA-52 also carries unguided High Velocity Aircraft Rockets (HVAR’s) of both the S-13 122mm rocket and the smaller S-8 80mm rocket both launched from multiple-round rocket pods. It is not known which munition was discharged in this incident." Yeah, right.

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A Life Aloft said:
Damn. I've had many exciting and interesting times at various air shows over the decades, but I've never had a gunship fire a fricking rocket at me. lol

Those guys are very lucky that they survived. Still not much owning up/info it seems.

"A public intelligence source cites one of the missiles on the KA-52 as being the Vikhr anti-armor missile and reports that the missiles are, “Virtually jam-proof and the system features automatic guidance to target.” The Kamov KA-52 also carries unguided High Velocity Aircraft Rockets (HVAR’s) of both the S-13 122mm rocket and the smaller S-8 80mm rocket both launched from multiple-round rocket pods. It is not known which munition was discharged in this incident." Yeah, right.

View attachment 40318
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That's a pair of rockets. Most likely S-8s just due to that being the one in common usage by the Russian Air units.

Vikhr's don't fly off that way, especially if they arent being actively guided.
 
One more bit of ammo in the box that General Support / Assault / Lift crews will be trying to use against Gunship crews........ :)
 
This sounds way better in Russian, but still

"Why did you bomb the farmer?"
"Mistook an agrarian for an agresson. Apologies, Colonel, won't happen any more"
"Well, he doesn't need any more"
 
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