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title: "Kamov Ka-29: history, design and naval service — OnlyPlanes"
description: "Explore the Kamov Ka-29 naval assault helicopter: its development, shipboard design, troop capacity, armament and service history."
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  "og:description": "Explore the Kamov Ka-29 naval assault helicopter: its development, shipboard design, troop capacity, armament and service history."
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  "og:title": "Kamov Ka-29: history, design and naval service — OnlyPlanes"
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Military helicopters / Ка-29

# Kamov Ka-29

The Ka-29 is a shipborne assault-transport helicopter for landing marines and providing fire support. It also carried personnel and cargo between ships and shore.

![Kamov Ka-29 aircraft photograph](https://onlyplanes.ru/images/military-aviation/models/29-0109.webp)

Development

## History

The Kamov Ka-29 is a shipborne assault transport built for naval infantry missions. It combines jobs that are often treated separately: moving a landing party from a ship and giving that party fire support. The helicopter can also carry supplies, transfer people between ship and shore, and evacuate casualties. Its resemblance to the anti-submarine Ka-27 reflects a shared technical ancestry, but the Ka-29 has a different cabin and a different set of mission equipment. That is why it deserves to be understood as an aircraft in its own right rather than a Ka-27 with a changed label.

During the 1970s the Soviet Navy sought more flexible ways to bring marines ashore from amphibious ships. A helicopter could reach a landing area without depending on a suitable stretch of beach or the approach of a small boat. The Kamov design bureau chose the developing Ka-27 family as a starting point. Its engines, transmission and coaxial rotor arrangement already belonged to a naval helicopter programme. The anti-submarine version, however, carried specialised search equipment. A troop carrier needed space for people, doors that allowed rapid movement and weapons suitable for supporting a landing after the troops had left the aircraft.

The prototype, originally known as the Ka-252TB, made its first flight on 28 July 1976. This did not mean that the new helicopter was ready for fleet service. Two experimental aircraft underwent factory trials and then formal state testing. Assessments had to cover transport and armed missions as well as basic flying qualities. Shipboard operation added further demands: the aircraft had to fit a restricted deck, withstand a maritime environment and work within a ship's procedures. The long interval between the first flight and regular service is therefore part of the development story, not evidence that the prototype and the production aircraft appeared at the same time.

Production aircraft were made at Kumertau between 1984 and 1991. The Patriot Park museum and reference material on the type give a total of 59 built. Deliveries to units began in the mid-1980s, while formal acceptance by Soviet naval aviation is dated 8 August 1987. These dates describe different events. A prototype can fly years before a factory establishes a production run, and crews may start training before the service formally accepts a type. This distinction matters when identifying photographs or museum aircraft: machines from different stages of the programme need not have exactly the same equipment or finish.

Like other Kamov naval helicopters, the Ka-29 uses two main rotors mounted on the same axis and turning in opposite directions. It does not need a separate tail rotor to counter engine torque. The layout keeps the aircraft relatively compact for a ship's landing area, although the transmission that coordinates the rotors is complex. Rotor diameter is about 15.9 metres. Two TV3-117 family turboshaft engines provide power. Patriot Park lists a maximum take-off mass of 11.5 tonnes. Performance numbers should always be read with their conditions: an empty aircraft, a machine carrying troops and one fitted for an armed mission do not represent the same operating case.

The forward fuselage is one of the clearest visual differences from the Ka-27. The cockpit was widened, with the pilot and navigator-operator seated side by side. Flat front glazing and local armour reflect the possibility of operating near a contested shore. The protection is concentrated around the crew and selected vital equipment; it does not make the whole aircraft invulnerable. Maritime service also influenced material choices and maintenance. A helicopter spending long periods aboard a ship must cope with damp air and salt, which can affect fasteners, panels and systems well before corrosion becomes obvious in a photograph.

In its transport arrangement the cabin can accommodate up to 16 armed marines. It can instead carry casualties, including patients on stretchers, or a cargo load of roughly two tonnes inside. Reference works also give a greater capacity for an external sling load. Those figures describe alternative configurations, not loads that should all be added together. Doors on both sides of the fuselage help passengers enter and leave quickly. Actual payload on a particular flight depends on fuel, weather, distance and the power margin required at the landing site. A published seating figure therefore tells only part of the story of an amphibious operation.

Weapons are what give the Ka-29 its second role. The design includes a movable machine-gun installation, while armed configurations can use external stations for rockets, cannon pods or anti-tank guided missiles. The equipment selected depends on the mission; a list of possible stores is not a claim that every aircraft carried all of them at once. The navigator-operator helps acquire targets and use guided weapons while the pilot flies. Close to a landing area, the crew must also watch terrain, obstacles, friendly troops and the helicopter's position relative to the ship. The aircraft's usefulness comes from integrating these jobs, rather than from any single item of armament.

Patriot Park gives a maximum speed of about 280 kilometres per hour and a cruising speed of about 235. It lists a range reaching 740 kilometres, although a mission with troops, weapons and a fuel reserve will have its own practical limits. Speed alone is not the main measure of an assault transport. Turnaround time, cabin access, communication with the ship and the ability to supply troops after landing are also important. Published performance figures are valuable when they are linked to the configuration being described. Comparing bare numbers without the payload and mission context can create a misleading impression of what a naval helicopter could actually do.

The Ka-29 was intended for ships that could embark helicopters and an amphibious force together. In Soviet service it was associated in particular with Project 1174 large landing ships. Several helicopters could cooperate, moving troops and equipment while other aircraft provided cover. That describes the planned operating concept, not an assertion that every sortie followed the same pattern. The size of an air group depended on the ships, aircraft and trained crews available at the time. The helicopter also had a wider transport role: moving personnel and goods between vessels or from a ship to shore did not necessarily require a combat landing.

Service did not end with the original Soviet programme. Aircraft remained in naval aviation after the dissolution of the USSR, and some later underwent repair before returning to units. Changes in the fleet's amphibious ships affected the need for the kind of helicopter group for which the Ka-29 had been designed. During the 1990s, selected aircraft were also used to explore cooperation with the Ka-50 attack helicopter. One specially modified Ka-29 carried equipment for direction and target designation. It was an experimental aircraft, so its fit must not be attributed to every production Ka-29 seen in service photographs.

The wider family can be confusing because several Kamov helicopters share their ancestry and rotor layout. The Ka-27 was developed mainly for anti-submarine and rescue work. The Ka-29 adapted the naval platform to carry marines and support them with weapons. The Ka-31 belongs to the airborne radar surveillance branch and performs a different task again. Similar silhouettes do not make these aircraft interchangeable. Their cabin arrangements, specialised equipment and operational demands differ. A technical figure or photograph labelled only with the family name should therefore be checked before being used to describe a particular model.

The Ka-29 illustrates how a naval helicopter platform could be reshaped around the requirements of an amphibious force. Its history includes a long development and testing period, a relatively small production run, service across several fleets and a few specialised experimental conversions. Its defining feature is the combination of a ship-compatible airframe, a troop cabin and an armed support role. Understanding the type requires more than quoting its top speed or payload. Crew tasks, ship facilities, weather, chosen weapons and the circumstances of a landing all shaped what a Ka-29 could achieve on an actual mission.

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