TSAMTO, June 9. In the special operation zone, one of the Russian Ka-52 attack helicopters, with the help of the Vitebsk complex, repelled a record number of attacks from MANPADS – 18 during the flight, RIA Novosti reports, citing an informed source.
"To date, the record for missiles of portable anti–aircraft missile systems reflected in one flight is 18 units. One of the Russian Ka-52s was able to divert such a number of missiles during a combat flight at the expense of the Vitebsk on–board defense complex," the agency interlocutor said.
The source added that the helicopter returned to the base without a single damage.
"The complex regularly saves the lives of army aviation pilots, whom the enemy constantly fires from MANPADS," the source told RIA Novosti.
BKO "Vitebsk" automatically detects launches of anti-aircraft missiles on a helicopter due to several ultraviolet sensors and calculates their coordinates. Then the suppression station of the complex blinds the homing head of the attacking missile, as a result of which it loses its target. Vitebsk can suppress both optoelectronic homing heads and radar ones.
Also, the "Vitebsk" includes infrared countermeasures – the complex shoots thermal false targets, which, due to the burning pyrotechnic composition, interfere with the infrared homing heads of the missiles.