I believe that the Ka-50 is very overtiered at 11.3 despite its heavy armament.
Helicopters by default, are weak in ground RB.
Many helicopters with lower BR gets thermal sight
For just a .3 BR increase, you get a ground detecting radar (AH-64DJP)
Armament is good, but it is very much the potential havoc that it can cause, which is the same situation with F-111 being able to carry so many bombs in Air RB (Yes, but will you be able to use them all?). Furthermore this point is partially nullified by the fact that you can rearm at the helipads.
Ka-50 being 11.3 BR means it will see IRCCM missiles a lot, such as the R-73, Aim-9M, Magic 2 (very easy to just walk in and launch especially when helipads aren’t protected at all). Jets can overwhelm IRCCM by closing the “eyes” of the IRCCM missile by spamming flares, then escaping from FOV when seeker shuts off, helicopters cannot do this being much slower.
Not strictly related, but 11.3 BR also bumps the BR of the premium 10.3 lineup a lot which is commonly purchased with the Ka-50. (Although this shoulnd’t be used as a evidence to downtier the Ka-50, but just a superficious reference to the ground force situation)
So what is the big issue in this? Well, other helicopters will have a much faster target acquisition speed with the Ka-50 just hovering around relying on human spotting without thermal for much longer. Helicopters in the game are extremely vulnerable and can be spawncamped on the helipads (I’m fine with them being vulnerable for balance). The longer you expose yourself, the more vulnerable you are.
To add to point 2, the helicopters with look-down capability does not have to expose their whole body at all.
The 10km range of Vikhr is theoretical. Launching missiles at this range means plenty of time for targets to take cover. It is like playing battleship (those who play naval knows this), you launch but you won’t know what the target situation is at in 30 seconds later and your in-flight correction can only do so much.
Also, the longer you stay exposed the more vulnerable you are, especially to enemy jets and some SPAA like ADATS which also has 10km range.
Plus, most helipads are closer than 10km.
But otherwise I won’t deny that they are good missiles.
They are to some extent, but Ka50 should be the exception if there is any lol.
Look to your side and find Z-19, a heli with 2/3 of ATGMs, which flies at half the speed and have half the range whilst also having a not modelled RWR, and the only upside is a thing called TY90 which is literally a flying strela.
Not talking about Ka 50 just to clarify, but many heli are easy targets for CAS, which are simply quicker, more survivable and are much better at taking down ground targets.
A Vikhrs can hit a target at 10km in less time than it takes a AH-64 to hit a target with a hellfire at 8km.
Considering the worse thing you have to deal with in a Vikhrs is a ADATS with a max range of barely 10km vs what the Apache has to deal with which is the 16km range Pantsir. Its not even close.
and many AH-64s are actually at 12.0 vs the Ka-50 at 11.3 (The A2G radar is barely worth mentioning without AGM-114Ls to actually mkae proper use of it )
(Just doubled checked, 38 seconds for hellfire to travel 8km vs Vikhrs taking 26 seconds at 10km)
Hellfire missiles are slower. The vikhrs give LESS TIME for people to escape your missile. The ka-50 is NOT overtiered. Look at the Z-10. now THAT heli has bad ATGMS. that are 100m/s SLOWER than hellfires…
A hellfire takes 24seconds to hit a target at 6km and the vikhr takes 14 seconds. Thats a 10 second difference…
Find me a SPAA other than the slow, easily discernable rolands that can engage and counter a Kamov that’s hugging the treeline.
I’ll wait.
Incase you’ve forgotten, optical lock is worthless outside of roughly 2 miles, which means the Kamov’s already killed you by two and a half times that distance.
Trust me, I know. I’ve killed plenty in the Type 81C alone. I know exactly how dogwater optical lock is.
