Why I don’t see helicopters in the Ukraine war?

Hi. Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, I don’t remember seeing attack helicopters in the news. What is the reason?

 

Helicopters have certainly been used…the opening months had many videos of these low flying, slow targets…Easy for the air defence Ukraine had been supplied. Russia lost many in those months. They are still being used (I’ve seen video) but much smarter…attack higher or really low, and with more support.

 

Yeah, seeing one getting shot down was almost a daily experience at the start of the war.

 

Because the Russian attack / support helicopters are largely designed to perform missions like the US Army used helicopters in Vietnam. Theirs are large ones equipped to perform in a way similar to ground support aircraft would. That is, they fly at low altitude, not NOE, and fire while moving at high speed. They don't use hover-pop up maneuvers.

Back in the early 70's the US did a series of tests in Germany with their attack helicopters versus what they expected the Soviets to have for air defense and against typical Soviet targets. Their Vietnam style low altitude using mostly unguided rockets attack style got them slaughtered in these wargames. It killed the AH 64 Cheyanne program and changed their development trajectory to one of using NOE flight, in-ground hover, and pop-up attacks with guided missiles.