Production of the attack helicopter was ordered by the Soviet Council of Ministers on 14 December 1987. The Ka-50 is the production version of the V-80Sh-1 prototype. Kamov also designed another two-seat variant, the Kamov Ka-52 'Alligator' (Russian: Аллигатор, NATO reporting name: Hokum B). It is used as a heavily armed scout helicopter, and is notable for having a rescue ejection system, rare for helicopters.ĭuring the late 1990s, Kamov and Israel Aerospace Industries developed a tandem-seat cockpit version, the Kamov Ka-50-2 'Erdogan' (Russian: Эрдоган, Turkish: Erdoğan), to compete in Turkey's attack helicopter competition.

The Ka-50 is manufactured by the Progress company in Arsenyev. It was designed in the 1980s and adopted for service in the Russian army in 1995. I want to move this knob from over here to over there, and that button is in a really inconvenient spot,’” he said.The Kamov Ka-50 'Black Shark' ( Russian: Чёрная акула, romanized: Chyornaya akula, English: kitefin shark, NATO reporting name: Hokum A) is a Soviet/Russian single-seat attack helicopter with the distinctive coaxial rotor system of the Kamov design bureau. “We can put wear and tear on it, and then we have the opportunity to go back to the company and say, ‘Hey, I don’t like this. He plans to take Arcwater to three field exercises in the next few months to see how it performs in the real world. The finished product with any needed changes should be available in the fall. Kenney said he expected to have a prototype by mid-May that pairs together the photovoltaic fabric and the water harvester.

And though it’s unclear what the military currently spends on sending water to the field, the Pentagon said in 2003 it cost $4.69 per gallon to deliver bottled water to troops in Afghanistan - or about $750,000 to hydrate 1,000 people for a month. In contrast, the Air Force said in 2019 it spends about $1.1 billion annually to power facilities and vehicles (plus about $7 billion a year in aviation fuel). The water system costs $87,000 per unit, while the solar setup runs about $232,000. Officials in the 52nd Fighter Wing approved of the idea and offered their discretionary funds to move it forward.

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