The Defense Ministry also concluded a contract with the Russian Helicopters Group on the delivery of 30 upgraded Ka-52M assault helicopters, Company CEO Andrei Boginsky announced.

"A contract for 30 helicopters has been signed for two years: 2022 and 2023," the chief executive said.

Deliveries of the upgraded helicopters will begin after passing the state joint tests, which started in August.

The Ka-52M is an upgraded version of the Ka-52 ‘Alligator’ gunship. As the gunship’s designers say, the Ka-52M missile armament has been standardized with the weapons suite of the Mi-28NM helicopter, another state-of-the-art Russian attack chopper, which has helped increase the target destruction range considerably. The Ka-52M is also furnished with a new phased array radar station and longer-range missiles. The upgraded gunship prototype performed its debut flight on August 10, 2020. 

Ka-52M received a modernized avionics complex equipped with computing facilities with increased performance. With its the possibilities of using weapons, including at night, have been expanded. The range of detection and recognition of targets at night has doubled.