Ka-25 (several versions, designations unknown) (NATO code " Hormone")
Constructor :design office Nikolai I. Kamov. Soviet Union.
Type :on-board ASW, search/rescue and utility helicopter.
Engines :two 900 hp Glouchenkov GTD-3 free turbines.
Dimensions:
main rotor diameter (both) 15.75 m;
fuselage length approximately 10.36 m;
height 5.4 m.
Weight:empty approximately 5,000 kg;
maximum load 7,500 kg.
Performance
max speed 193 km/h;
ceiling about 3,350 m;
range approximately 650 km.
Armament: one or two 400 mm AS torpedoes. conventional or nuclear depth charges, or other weapons, carried in an interior hold.
Commissioning :first flight (Ka-20) probably 1960;
delivery to units from the initial production version, probably 1965.
Users :India, Syria, Soviet Union (AV-MF). Yugoslavia.
Nikolai Kamov, who died in 1973, was one of the most famous helicopter manufacturers of the Soviet Union. He equipped almost all of them with two superimposed coaxial rotors, thus offering them a very high power for a reduced size. The Ka-15 and -18 powered by piston engines were used in large numbers by the Soviet armed forces, but in 1961, during the Air Force Day parade in Tushino, an entirely new machine was discovered, Baptized Ka-20 and carrying a guided missile on each of its sides.
It received the NATO code name "Harp" Visibly propelled by gas turbines, it seemed formidable! Subsequently, in 1960, it became clear that from this helicopter. the Kamov bureau, under the leadership of Chief Engineer Barchevsky, had developed the standard on-board device of the Soviet fleet. successor to the Mi-4. Called Ka-25 and given a new Western code name "Hormone", it is in service in at least five major versions, including numerous sub-versions. If the "missiles" presented in 1961 - no doubt dummy machines - have never been seen since, the Ka-25 is nonetheless extremely well equipped, benefiting from detection and anti-attack equipment. -all-weather submarines.
The four wheels of the landing gear are each surrounded by an inflatable float in an instant thanks to the gas canisters housed just above. Ka-25s are deployed in two main versions, each with sub-versions modified over the years. The base ASW model, dubbed "Hormone-A" in the West, has a chin radar, a towed MAD (magnetic detector), a submersible sonar normally housed in its own rear compartment, and an electro-optical sensor . The large warships kyiv, Minsk and their twins each carry 27 Ka-25s, the Moskva and Leningrad 18 and the very recent Kirov can accommodate around 5.
Cruisers like the Kresta and the Kara normally carry one or two. Three copies will be provided to India when this country has received its three Krivak-class cruisers. There is also an electronic warfare version called “Hormone-N”; this acquires targets for ship launches, presumably provides (semi-acfive) guidance to or terminal, and performs other electronic warfare missions. It has a larger and differently shaped radar, another radar under the rear