As I said originally “Technically” it can fly without it. But the over-simplified damage model means that there is no collateral damage to other systems.
That does go for the tail falling off as well. Its probably like aircraft wings. Its just one part that falls off. all or nothing. Rather than being in a load of segments with a variable affect on performance depending on how many parts are knocked off.
Their is a recent video from Ukraine where the tail gets hit more square, and the KA-50 heads straight to the earth. You can see it get hit, and the majority of the tail comes off, half a second later it noses down and that is all she wrote. Ejection sequence never started, which likely tells us that a good hit to center mass damages those systems.
Yep, I think we should just wait for the overhauled damage model hopefully coming next major and then go from there. Though its not only the Ka-50s that can take a beating. Putting a 120mm shell through a heli centre mass should kill, but have had more than a few shrug those kinds of hits off.
I think the exception here would be the Huey… you can absolutely just punch through that thing without hurting anyone or anything. Doors are thin enough not to fuse a tank round and with everyone running APFSDS it would be worse.
It’s not even missing the vertical stabilizer, the stabilizer is just bent 90 degrees.
“realistic battles doesn’t need to be ‘realistic’”. You learn something new everyday.