If You Wonder.

Yes, this is in China and yes, this is Ka-52M with Chinese markings. 

Is this a real photo or neural network creation? Well, you'll be the judge of that, but since 2021 China was mulling the idea of buying a ship's version of Ka-52 Katran. 

The possible contract was reported by the American magazine The National Interest. The publication notes that there is no official confirmation of this information by Beijing or Moscow yet, but the likelihood of concluding an agreement is "very high." The topic of a potential agreement is also actively discussed in the Chinese media. "Heavy attack helicopters are needed to equip the latest Chinese landing ships. After its own unsuccessful developments, China is asking for help from Russia. In addition, the agreement will demonstrate to the United States active cooperation between the PRC and the Russian Federation, which will reduce American aggression,"- quotes the words of researcher Zhou Chenming from the Defense University of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China, the Chinese newspaper South China Morning Post. Earlier, the American edition of Military Watch called the Ka-52 Alligator helicopter, the shipborne version of which is the Ka-52K, "the most dangerous attack helicopter in the world."

A lot has changed since then. Ka-52 proved itself (already proven in Syria) but in SMO as a premier combat helicopter. But then again, everybody have been guessing about Iranian Mi-28s until they have been spotted in the Iranian skies. Same goes for Algerian Su-57s. They are seen and not one or two anymore. 

Which brings us to morons from Stockholm SIPRI who still continue to pour BS of dollar-expressed world arms trade to all kinds of "analysts" as a viable data. Only complete cretins judge combat power in expenditure in US Dollars while not understanding the essence of this power as a combination of ADJUSTED expenditure, technological, doctrinal, industrial and operational factors--precisely the combination which NATO people are incapable to grasp. 

I want to remind you this dawning of realization on ... USMC officer, a revelation for him really:

We allow ourselves to look at our impressive defense budget and expensive systems and throw around hyperbole about the United States having the greatest military in the world. How, then, have we been bested by malnourished and undereducated men with antiquated and improvised weaponry whilst spending trillions of dollars in national treasure and costing the lives of thousands of servicemen and hundreds of thousands of civilians? Judging military capability by the metric of defense expenditures is a false equivalency. All that matters are raw, quantifiable capabilities and measures of effectiveness. For example: a multi-billion dollar aircraft carrier that can be bested by a few million dollars in the form of a swarming missile barrage or a small unmanned aircraft system (UAS) capable of rendering its flight deck unusable does not retain its dollar value in real terms. Neither does the M1A1 tank, which is defeated by $20 worth of household items and scrap metal rendered into an explosively-formed projectile. The Joint Improvised Threat Defeat Organization has a library full of examples like these, and that is without touching the weaponized return on investment in terms of industrial output and capability development currently being employed by our conventional adversaries.

Yep, combat effectiveness calculated against serious enemy force and for high-intensity tactical and operational environment is the ONLY thing that matters. ATGMs Hermes or LMUR plugged into the profile of deployed force run by Battle Management System such as Andromeda, among others--they don't care how much your tank costs, they care only about where is this tank, or strong-point for that matter, and at what range they should blow those expensive toys to smithereens. Yes, Correlation of Forces and Means, like IDF discovered for itself (again) in Southern Lebanon. You know, those Hezbollah's pesky UAVs and, yes, Kornets again. 

I also have news for these "dreamers" who continue to defraud US taxpayers. 

The United States will struggle to defend itself against advanced missile systems developed by China and Russia, senior Pentagon officials told lawmakers as they called for funding for the proposed Golden Dome missile defense program.

I have news, it could be Golden, it could be Brilliant or any other name you find fit to stick to this Pentagon's another "big thing" but it is not going to stop shit--the US AD capabilities fell behind so bad that any mentioning of "anti-hypersonic" by any US military or policy-makers should be corrected immediately by asking the question how this Golden thing will be able to intercept something like 3M22 Zircon? Well, the US doesn't have hypersonic technology (after Russians, obviously, "stole" it from the US) to even initiate a test phase. If you think that computer simulation will do the trick--I have a bridge to sell you. You need a physical REAL hypersonic weapon (forget about having a variety of them, like Russia has) to conduct exhaustive life testing to gather data sets and test your whole damn thing--from detection (good luck detecting hypersonic weapons in flight. Launch? Maybe.) to tracking to developing firing solution by ... exactly--you need AD systems with missiles which are the next thing in energy capacity for maneuvering. The US doesn't have any. 

When I say that the US lost the arms race--this is not hyperbole or figure of speech, it literally did with a very few respectable capabilities remaining such as ISR, subs as platforms only, signal processing and ... PR. The rest--well, will say that it is very-very expensive. Ask Russians or ... Iran.