The Kamov Ka-31 (
NATO reporting name
NATO reporting names are code names for military equipment from Russia, China, and historically, the Eastern Bloc (Soviet Union and other nations of the Warsaw Pact). They provide unambiguous and easily understood English words in a uniform manne ...
Helix) is a
military helicopter
A military helicopter is a helicopter that is either specifically built or converted for use by military forces. A military helicopter's mission is a function of its design or conversion. The most common use of military helicopters is transport ...
originally developed for the
Soviet Navy and currently in service in
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
,
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
, and
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
in the naval
airborne early warning and control
Airborne or Airborn may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
Films
* ''Airborne'' (1962 film), a 1962 American film directed by James Landis
* ''Airborne'' (1993 film), a comedy–drama film
* ''Airborne'' (1998 film), an action film sta ...
role.
As with all
Kamov
JSC Kamov (russian: Камов) is a Russian rotorcraft manufacturing company based in Lyubertsy, Russia.
The Kamov Design Bureau ( design office prefix Ka) has more recently specialised in compact helicopters with coaxial rotors, suitable for n ...
helicopters except the
Ka-60
The Kamov Ka-60 ''Kasatka'' (russian: " Касатка", ("Killer Whale") is a Russian medium twin-turbine military transport helicopter under development by Kamov. It performed its first flight on 24 December 1998.
The civil version is known ...
/-62 family, the Ka-31 has co-axially mounted
contra-rotating
Contra-rotating, also referred to as coaxial contra-rotating, is a technique whereby parts of a mechanism rotate in opposite directions about a common axis, usually to minimise the effect of torque. Examples include some aircraft propellers, res ...
main
rotors. The airframe of the Ka-31 is based on the
Kamov Ka-27
The Kamov Ka-27 (NATO reporting name 'Helix') is a military helicopter developed for the Soviet Navy, and currently in service in various countries including Russia, Ukraine, Vietnam, China, South Korea, and India. Variants include the Ka-29 ...
. One visually distinctive feature of the Ka-31 is the large antenna of the
early-warning radar
An early-warning radar is any radar system used primarily for the long-range detection of its targets, i.e., allowing defences to be alerted as ''early'' as possible before the intruder reaches its target, giving the air defences the maximum t ...
, which is either rotating or folded and stowed under the fuselage. The second is the reduction of the bulky electro-optical sensory suite beneath the
cockpit
A cockpit or flight deck is the area, usually near the front of an aircraft or spacecraft, from which a Pilot in command, pilot controls the aircraft.
The cockpit of an aircraft contains flight instruments on an instrument panel, and the ...
. The landing gear retracts in order to prevent interference with the radar.
Design and development
The
Kamov
JSC Kamov (russian: Камов) is a Russian rotorcraft manufacturing company based in Lyubertsy, Russia.
The Kamov Design Bureau ( design office prefix Ka) has more recently specialised in compact helicopters with coaxial rotors, suitable for n ...
design bureau was asked by the Soviet Navy to begin the development of an early-warning helicopter in 1985. A carrier-capable
early-warning aircraft, the Yakovlev Yak-44, was already in development, but it would not be deployable on all ship types. Designed on the basis of the
Kamov Ka-27
The Kamov Ka-27 (NATO reporting name 'Helix') is a military helicopter developed for the Soviet Navy, and currently in service in various countries including Russia, Ukraine, Vietnam, China, South Korea, and India. Variants include the Ka-29 ...
, the new helicopter, initially known as the Ka-252RLD, was primarily intended to serve on
Kiev-class and
Kuznetsov-class aircraft carriers, but also on other ships with a helicopter deck. Two prototypes based on series Ka-29 airframes were built. In the end, the helicopter received the designation Ka-31.
![Ka-31-2007](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f9/Ka-31-2007.jpg)
The Nizhny Novgorod Radio Engineering Institute was working on a radar design to be used on the An-71; the same design was applied with changes for a rotary-wing airframe. The radar's development took time and it was not until 1987 the first flight took place. The production version of the Ka-31 was very different from the Ka-29 from which it was derived.
Some of the distinct features of the Kamov Ka-31 are:
* The removal of the bulky electro-optical sensor suite, beneath the cockpit.
* The cockpit is wider than the Ka-27/29, with 2 additional MFDs.
* The
ASW capability is not installed.
* The addition of Kronstadt Kabris 12-channel global positioning system.
* The powerplant is a more powerful Klimov TV3-117VMAR x 2. (the Ka-27 uses TV3-117BK)
* The TA-8Ka
APU
APU or Apu may refer to:
Film and television
* ''The Apu Trilogy'', a series of three Bengali films, directed by Satyajit Ray, with the fictional character Apu Roy, comprising:
** ''Pather Panchali'' (''Song of the Little Road'') (1955), the first ...
is added to provide power for the
radar
Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, w ...
and
C4ISR
* 16-channel digital communication gear with range up to .
The Ka-31 is equipped with the E-801 ''Oko''
L-band
The L band is the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) designation for the range of frequencies in the radio spectrum from 1 to 2 gigahertz (GHz). This is at the top end of the ultra high frequency (UHF) band, at the lower en ...
radar, capable of detecting and tracking up to 40 targets simultaneously, flying from 5 to 3,500 meters altitude. The detection range is 110 km for a fighter-aircraft-sized target, and 200 km for ship-sized targets. The antenna is six meters wide and one meter high, and rotates six times per minute. The radar can work in air-to-air, air-to-sea, and "mixed" (both at the same time) modes. The landing gear is retractable, in order to avoid interfering with the radar's functioning. When not in use, the radar's antenna is retracted under the fuselage. Due to its relatively small size, the Ka-31 doesn't have the capability to process the information collected by its radar. Instead, it transfers the information to nearby ships for them to do so.
Operational history
The Ka-31's state trials began in 1988, with ship-based trials taking place between 1990 and 1991 on the carrier
''Admiral Kuznetsov''. However, the
dissolution of the Soviet Union
The dissolution of the Soviet Union, also negatively connoted as rus, Разва́л Сове́тского Сою́за, r=Razvál Sovétskogo Soyúza, ''Ruining of the Soviet Union''. was the process of internal disintegration within the Sov ...
and the termination of the aircraft carrier projects pursued at the time spelled the end of the Ka-31 project: an order for eight helicopters was cancelled. Still, the test were continued, and the Ka-31 was officially accepted for service with the Russian Navy in 1995. Both Ka-31 prototypes were then deployed on board ''Admiral Kuznetsov'' during each of its cruises.
The
Indian Navy
The Indian Navy is the maritime branch of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Navy. The Chief of Naval Staff, a four-star admiral, commands the navy. As a blue-water navy, it operates sig ...
ordered four Ka-31s in 1999, and a further five in 2001.
The first batch of four entered service with the Indian Navy in April 2003. The second batch was delivered in 2005.
Five additional Ka-31s were ordered in 2009, and they were delivered between 2011 and 2012. As of 2019, India was considering another order for 10 Ka-31s, together with the modernisation of 10 of the 14 helicopters already in service.
In May 2022, the Indian government indefinitely suspended the negotiations with Rosoboronexport due to concerns over Moscow’s ability to execute orders and issues related to payment transfers.
During the period when with the retirement of an old carrier, the Indian Navy was operating a single carrier, it not only operated the helicopters from aircraft carriers and destroyers, but also from its shore-based naval air stations. The operation with the Indian Navy revealed a major drawback of the aircraft, its limited endurance/range, the chief element of a taskforce/battlegroup. In response,
Hindustan Aeronautics Limited
Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) is an Indian state-owned aerospace and defence (military), defence company, headquartered in Bangalore, India. Established on 23 December 1940, HAL is one of the oldest and largest aerospace and defence manuf ...
was commissioned to experiment and possibly adapt a helicopter-to-helicopter refuelling system. Also, in the Indian service, the aircraft received Abris
GPS
The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a Radionavigation-satellite service, satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of t ...
system featuring a 12-channel receiver and option to employ
Differential GPS
Differential Global Positioning Systems (DGPSs) supplement and enhance the positional data available from global navigation satellite systems (GNSSs). A DGPS for GPS can increase accuracy by about a thousandfold, from approximately to .
DGPSs c ...
references, designed by Kronstad itself.
In 2008, China ordered nine Ka-31s to equip the
People's Liberation Army Navy
The People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN; ), also known as the People's Navy, Chinese Navy, or PLA Navy, is the maritime service branch of the People's Liberation Army.
The PLAN traces its lineage to naval units fighting during the Chinese ...
's carriers. The helicopters were delivered between 2010 and 2011.
It has since been reported that Chinese Ka-31s are based at naval bases in eastern China.
In 2008, Russia ordered two Ka-31Rs with one more as an option, in order to equip its s. They were delivered in 2012. Russia has also developed a land-based variant of the Ka-31R, the Ka-35. This variant is optimised for the detection and tracking of ground targets. The first prototype first flew in 2004, and a second was built in 2006. The Ka-35 was officially accepted for service in 2015, and it was used in Syria in 2016. No order for this version has been signed as of yet.
Variants
;Ka-31
:Original variant, sold to India and China.
;Ka-31R
:Variant currently used by the
Russian Navy.
;Ka-35
:Land-based version of the Ka-31R. Original E-801 radar replaced with the 15S100.10, optimised for detection and tracking of ground targets. Modernised cockpit, new navigation and communication systems and datalink. Fitted with the
Vitebsk
Vitebsk or Viciebsk (russian: Витебск, ; be, Ві́цебск, ; , ''Vitebsk'', lt, Vitebskas, pl, Witebsk), is a city in Belarus. The capital of the Vitebsk Region, it has 366,299 inhabitants, making it the country's fourth-largest ci ...
self-protection system.
Operators
![Kamov Ka-31 of Indian Navy onboard INS Vikramaditya](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/19/Kamov_Ka-31_of_Indian_Navy_onboard_INS_Vikramaditya.jpg)
;
*
People's Liberation Army Naval Air Force
The People's Liberation Army Naval Air Force (PLANAF; ) is the naval aviation branch of the People's Liberation Army Navy.
Overview
Historically, the PLANAF's main role has been to provide the navy's warships with air defense coverage. Part of ...
– nine Ka-31s.
;
*
Indian Naval Air Arm
The Indian Naval Air Arm is the aviation branch and a fighting arm of the Indian Navy which is tasked to provide an aircraft carrier based strike capability, fleet air defence, maritime reconnaissance, and anti-submarine warfare.
The Flag Off ...
– 14 Ka-31s.
;
*
Russian Naval Aviation
The Russian Naval Aviation ( rus, Авиация Военно-морского флота России, r=Aviatsiya Voenno-morskovo Flota Rossii) is the air arm of the Russian Navy, a successor of Soviet Naval Aviation. The Russian Navy is divide ...
– two Ka-31Rs.
*
Russian Ground Forces
The Russian Ground Forces (russian: Сухопутные войска ВSukhoputnyye voyska V}), also known as the Russian Army (, ), are the land forces of the Russian Armed Forces.
The primary responsibilities of the Russian Ground Forces ...
– two Ka-35 prototypes.
Specifications (Ka-31)
See also
References
External links
Kamov Ka-27 – Specific Information (eng/rus)Photo Ka-31 in flight (2010).
{{Kamov aircraft
Military helicopters
1990s Soviet and Russian military aircraft
Ka-31
1980s Soviet helicopters
AWACS aircraft
Twin-turbine helicopters
Aircraft first flown in 1987