Russia Has Lost 42 Ka-52 Attack Helicopters Since 2022, GlobalMilitary.net Data Shows

A Ka-52 Alligator attack helicopter lost on July 2 — its commander killed and the weapons officer ejecting safely, according to Defence Blog — has brought Russia's documented losses of the type to 42 since February 2022, according to GlobalMilitary.net's event database. That makes the coaxial-rotor gunship the most heavily attrited helicopter in Russian service through four and a half years of war in Ukraine.

Of the 42 recorded losses, 23 aircraft were shot down, seven were destroyed — including on the ground in Ukrainian strikes on air bases — three were lost in crashes, and nine were lost in circumstances Russia has not disclosed. The attrition curve tells the story of the war's evolving air defense environment: 21 Ka-52s were lost in 2022 alone, when the type flew low-level assault missions into dense Ukrainian MANPADS coverage, falling to 11 in 2023, four in 2024 and two in 2025 as crews shifted to stand-off tactics built around the LMUR long-range guided missile.

The trend has reversed in 2026, with four losses in the first half of the year — and a new threat profile. A Ka-52 was destroyed by kamikaze drones on the ground at Pugachevka airfield in Oryol Region in February, and another was downed near Pokrovsk in March by a Ukrainian FPV drone, a mode of attack that barely existed as a threat to helicopters when the war began. The cause of the July 2 loss has not been disclosed.

Attrition, however, has not shrunk the fleet. GlobalMilitary.net fleet records show around 138 Ka-52s in active Russian service in 2026 — 135 with the Aerospace Forces and three with Naval Aviation — up from 119 at the start of the full-scale invasion, as deliveries of new-build airframes, including the upgraded Ka-52M, have more than offset combat losses. Open-source tracker Oryx, which uses a broader methodology counting damaged and captured airframes as well as visually confirmed destructions, puts the type's cumulative toll above 60.

The Ka-52's loss record remains far ahead of Russia's other rotary types in the war: GMN data records 29 Mi-8 transport helicopters, 17 Mi-24/35s and 13 Mi-28s lost over the same period. Whether the FPV drone threat forces another tactical adaptation — or pushes the Alligator further back from the line of contact — will be one of the indicators to watch in the second half of 2026.