Ka-52 Alligator Gunship Killed by Ukrainian Drone

“A Russian Ka-52 helicopter has been downed by a first-person-view (FPV) drone operated by fighters from the Sky Predators unmanned systems battalion of the 59th Separate Assault Brigade of the Unmanned Systems Forces.” – Ukrainska Pravda, March 20, 2026.

On March 20, 2026, at approximately 1:15 PM, near the Russian-occupied, Ukrainian village of Nadiivka, at the current front lines of battle, a heavily-armed, Russian Kamov Ka-52 (or newer Ka-52M) Alligator helicopter gunship was orbiting over a badly damaged area of ground with burned-out trees, looking for Ukrainian targets on the ground, when it was surprised by a Ukrainian fiber-optic, first-person-view (FPV), quadcopter drone just 35 miles west of Donetsk, on the Pokrovsk front.

The deadly Alligator was relentlessly hunted down at very low altitude by the “Baltika” drone crew from the 1st Battalion of the 59th Separate Assault Brigade’s Sky Predators unit, which had previously brought down a Russian Mi-8/17 Hip-H transport helicopter on September 29, 2025.

The vaunted Ka-52 is Russia’s most-advanced and expensive, combat helicopter, at $16 million each, armed with a powerful, Shipunov 2A42 30x165mm  autocannon, and six weapons stations capable of carrying unguided, 80mm rocket pods, 9M120 Ataka (AT-9 Spiral-2) and 9A4172K Vikhr-1 (AT-16 Scallion = 7.5 miles range) anti-tank missiles, or Kh-39 LMUR guided missiles (nine miles range.) Its nose-mounted, GOES-451 electro-optical, targeting sensor allows rapid targeting in daytime or nighttime.

In this most recent air-to-air attack, the Ukrainian FPV drone circled around the Alligator attack helicopter and then aimed for a daring, head-on attack at low altitude.

The Ukrainian drone operator intentionally aimed for the two weapon stations beneath the left stub wing of the Ka-52 Alligator, which held a B8V-20 20-shot, 80mm rocket pod, and a 130-gallon, auxiliary fuel tank, since he knew that his drone’s warhead was small, and aircraft structural damage alone might not be sufficient to bring down the helicopter. The resulting explosion was significant, causing the stricken Alligator gunship to burst into flames and crash-land on the open battlefield.

The two-man Russian aircrew attempted to escape from the burning wreckage, crawling toward a nearby trench behind burned-out, armored vehicles on the battlefield, but Ukrainian drones operated by the 1st Battalion of the 414th “Madyar’s Birds” Separate Brigade arrived and attacked them.

Ukrainian Unmanned Systems Forces (USF) commander Robert “Madyar” Brovdi later wrote that, “The enemy Ka-52 and the crew, which tried to evacuate, were eliminated by the USF birds in the Donetsk region.” A follow-up, drone reconnaissance flight later confirmed that the two Russian pilots in the trench were already dead.

According to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Russian troops had lost 349 helicopters in Ukraine by March 19, 2026, making this Ka-52 incident their 350th combat helicopter loss. The Dutch open-source website, Oryx, has visually confirmed at least 66 Ka-52 Alligators lost by December 3, 2025, including 52 destroyed, 13 damaged, and one shot down near Kyiv and captured.

The Ukrainian 59th Separate Assault Brigade’s Sky Predators unit posted on Telegram that, “Today, we shot down an enemy helicopter for the second time. This time, a Ka-52. This is no longer an accident. This is the result of the coordinated work and skill of our guys. A machine worth about $16 million was destroyed by a small drone in the hands of an experienced pilot.”