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The Kamov Ka-31 is a little-known airborne early warning variant of the Ka-27, developed to serve as a radar picket for the Russian Navy. Its primary mission system is the NNIIRT/Nizhny Novgorod E-801 Oko pulse-Doppler radar, with a maximum detection range of 110-115km (68-71 miles). The big antenna of the latter is installed under the fuselage, and must be folded before landing. Bort ‘232’ was the second prototype built from scratch at the Kumertau plant in 2006, for tests of the mission system: it was deployed together with another example during Kuznetsov’s Mediterranean-cruise in late 2016, and often sighted flying over Lattakia. (Artwork by Tom Cooper)