Ka-226 Hoodlum-C

The Kamov Ka-226 (NATO reporting name Hoodlum) is a light twin-engined utility helicopter with Kamov's coaxial rotor layout and an interchangeable mission pod in place of a fixed cabin. A turbine-powered development of the piston-engined Ka-26, it first flew in 1997 and entered service in 2002. The Ka-226T, re-engined with Turbomeca Arrius 2G1 turboshafts, is the current production version, flown by Russian military and security services and selected in 2015 for a 200-helicopter Indian programme that was cancelled in 2023. A Ka-226T with Klimov VK-650V engines made its first full flight in May 2026.

Development

The Ka-226 was announced in 1990 as a twin-turbine successor to the Ka-26, in parallel with the single-turbine Ka-126, and was developed for the Russian ministry responsible for disaster relief. The prototype first flew on 4 September 1997, and the type was certified to the Russian AP-29 categories A and B on 31 October 2003. Production was set up at the Strela plant in Orenburg and then at KumAPP in Kumertau, which began delivering the Ka-226.50 and Ka-226.80 in 2005. The original powerplant was a pair of Allison 250-C20R/2 turboshafts. The Ka-226T replaced them with Turbomeca Arrius 2G1 engines and added new avionics; it was certified in Russia in April 2015, and a certificate supplement for high-temperature operation followed in March 2018. In March 2026 the first Ka-226T fitted with Klimov VK-650V engines, aircraft no. 226, began hover tests, and it made its first full flight on 22 May 2026 from the Mil Moscow Helicopter Plant.

Design

The Ka-226 retains the coaxial contra-rotating rotors of its predecessor, which dispense with a tail rotor, but introduces a new rotor system, a new transmission, a redesigned nose with improved visibility and a new cabin, with a largely composite structure. The mission pod behind the cockpit can be exchanged for other mission modules. In the Ka-226T the crew is one or two, with seven passengers or 1,050 kg of cargo internally and 1,100 kg on a sling. The helicopter is 8.1 m long and 4.15 m high, with two 13 m rotors and a gross weight of 3,800 kg. Maximum speed is 250 km/h, cruising speed 220 km/h, range 600 km and hovering ceiling 4,600 m. The Ka-226T introduced multifunction cockpit displays, a radar, a hoist, a sling, a searchlight, an additional fuel tank and a medical module.

Military service

A 2011 Ministry of Defence contract for a batch of Ka-226.80 was completed with the final delivery on 17 April 2015, and the Russian Aerospace Forces are to receive 36 in total. The FSB has taken at least six and the Ministry of Internal Affairs 11, and the type also serves with the Russian police. In late March 2017 Russian security structures received the first two ship-based Ka-226T, with six delivered by April 2018. Gazpromavia ordered 18 of the civil Ka-226TG. Ukraine received one for its Ministry of Emergency Situations, and Ukrainian Naval Aviation operates one with the 10th Naval Aviation Brigade. The Syrian Arab Air Force had at least two, whose status was uncertain as of December 2025.

India was the largest prospective customer. After reports of an agreement in December 2014, the Defence Acquisition Council cleared the purchase of at least 200 Ka-226T for the Indian Army and Air Force on 13 May 2015, replacing a cancelled 197-helicopter tender. An intergovernmental agreement was signed by President Putin and Prime Minister Modi in Moscow in December 2015, and a shareholders' agreement on 15 October 2016 gave HAL 50.5 percent and Russian Helicopters and Rosoboronexport 49.5 percent of a joint venture, incorporated as Indo Russia Helicopters Limited in May 2017. The plan called for 60 fly-away helicopters, 40 assembled in India and 100 built at HAL's Tumakuru plant. The contract remained unsigned by February 2020 over cost and localisation disputes, was put on hold by November 2021, was expected to be dropped after the start of the Russo-Ukrainian war in 2022, and had been cancelled by November 2023.

Variants

• Ka-226: baseline version with Allison 250-C20R/2 engines, first flown in 1997.
• Ka-226.50 / Ka-226.80: production versions delivered from 2005.
• Ka-226T: version with Turbomeca Arrius 2G1 engines and new avionics, certified in 2015; ship-based examples delivered from 2017.
• Ka-226TG: civil version ordered by Gazpromavia.
• Ka-226T (VK-650V): version with Klimov VK-650V engines, first flown in full in May 2026.