Kamov Ka-25

The Ka-25PL (HP-43) is an anti-submarine twin-engine helicopter. The Cold War was marked by an arms race and submarines carrying nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles became an increasing threat. At the end of the fifties of the last century, the development of anti-submarine helicopters for deployment on new ships equipped with helicopter platforms that entered the service of the Soviet Navy accelerated. 

The prototype helicopter of the Soviet designer Nikolai Kamov under the designation Ka-20 flew for the first time in 1960, and in 1965 a serial variant appeared under the designation Ka-25. It fulfilled different tasks in the navy, so several versions were made. Depending on the equipment and weapons, the standard anti-submarine version appeared, then the torpedo, rescue, electronic reconnaissance, minesweeper carrier of long-range anti-ship missiles, and all the way to the carrier of depth nuclear bomb.

For hunting submarines, it is equipped with a radar, magnetic anomaly detector and sonar, and its weapons include torpedoes and anti-submarine bombs. To enable landing on the water surface, the legs of the helicopter's landing gear are equipped with inflatable rubber cushions. Like all other helicopters designed by the Kamov bureau, this one has two coaxial main rotors that rotate in opposite directions, so there was no need for a tail rotor. About 450 examples were produced until 1977. In addition to the Soviet Navy, it was used in five other countries: Bulgaria, Syria, India, Vietnam and Yugoslavia.

The Yugoslav Air Force acquired six Ka-25s that began to be used under our designation HP-43 in November 1974. They were assigned to the 784th anti-submarine helicopter squadron "Sharks" in Divulje near Split, and after the outbreak of the civil war in Yugoslavia, they were transferred to Podgorica. In 1989, two helicopters were sent to the USSR for overhaul, from which they never returned. The remaining HP-43s were withdrawn from service in 1997, only to be destroyed during the NATO aggression in 1999. The exhibited Kamov Ka 25 (ev.no.11323) is the only preserved example of our first used anti-submarine helicopter. He flew to the exhibition on September 16, 1998 from Podgorica.