Kamov Ka-29 Helix-B

   The Ka-29TB (Transportno Boyevoy) is a dedicated assault transport derivative of the Ka-27 family, intended especially for the support of Russian navy amphibious operations and featuring a substantially changed airframe.

   The first example was seen by Western observers on the assault ship Ivan Rogov in 1987, the type having entered service in 1985, and the Ka-29TB was initially assumed to be the Ka-27B, resulting in the allocation of the NATO reporting designation Helix-B. Many of the new variants went unnoticed, and the Ka-29TB was initially thought to be a minimum-change version of the basic Ka-27PL without radar. In fact the Ka-29TB features an entirely new, much widened forward fuselage, with a flight deck seating three members of the crew side-by-side, one of these crew members acting as a gunner to aim the various types of air-to-surface unguided rocket carried on the four hardpoints of the helicopter's pair of strut-braced lateral pylons, and the trainable machine-gun hidden behind and articulated door on the starboard side of the nose. In addition, the two-piece curved windscreen of the Ka-27 has given way to a five-piece unit.

   An air data boom projects form the port side of the nose, which also carries an electro-optical sensor to starboard and a missile guidance/illuminating and TFR pod to port.

   The Ka-31 is an airborne early warning helicopter, based on the basic Ka-29TB. It's main mission is a long-range detection of airborne and naval threats.