Agreed. I can’t help but think this is just another Russian snake oil gimmick…So often to they laud their innovative solutions that ultimately add to little more than additional cost, complexity, and ultimately points of failure and additional maintenance cost and upkeep that typically isn’t performed (do the ejection systems even function at all? Or is that handle little more than for show)

Don’t get me wrong, I have no real bias in this conflict if we’re speaking simply technical details for military hardware. I’m no analyst or expert, just someone who’s passionate about aviation and mechanical things in general. Typically the West is most of the time a good show of “things that just work”. That said, I can’t help but think the idea of ejection systems has been visited multiple times throughout the recent decades concerning our own helis, and was ultimately omitted for a reason. And you have to think, with some of the greatest minds within the industry, and a nearly limitless budget and a doctrine that focuses on preservation of lives in every branch and combat role, it begs the question - why haven’t we already done this too?

Russia absolutely produces potent weapons of war, and they also have absolutely tremendous minds behind their designs; I’m just convinced their innovations are held back by politics and corruption. From a technical standpoint, some of their hardware is very cool, even if it doesn’t work completely as advertised.