Ukraine conflict: Russia's attack helicopter forces transition from ‘easy target' to ‘worst nightmare'

While Russian attack helicopters, such as the Ka-52 pictured, did not fare well in the early stages of the war in Ukraine, improvements in tactics and equipment have been made to dramatically improve their showing. (Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation)

Russia's attack helicopter forces have gone from being “easy targets” in the early stages of the war in Ukraine to now being the “worst nightmare” of the Ukrainian armed forces, an official from the NATO Joint Air Power Competence Centre (JAPCC) said on 26 February.

Speaking at the IQPC International Military Helicopter (IMH) 2025 conference in London, subject matter expert on attack helicopters at the JAPCC, Lieutenant Colonel Emiliano Pellegrini of the Italian Army, said that Russia has been quick to learn early painful lessons in Ukraine in how not to use attack helicopters and has now successfully adapted the tactics and capabilities of its Kamov Ka-52 ‘Hokum-B', Mil Mi-28 ‘Havoc', and Mil Mi-24/35 ‘Hind' helicopters.

At the outset of the war, Russia employed 75 Ka-52, 55 Mi-28, and 95 Mi-24/35 helicopters, according to the JAPCC's interpretation of open-source data (Lt Col Pellegrini said that the presumption was made that 30% of the fleet inventory would be unavailable at any one time, due to maintenance or the like).