Editing Kamov Ka-50 (section)

===Ka-50N "Night Shark" and Ka-50Sh===
From the time the Ka-50 was ordered in 1987, it was known that the limited night-time capability of the original version would have to be upgraded to meet night attack requirements.<ref name=Donald_p311-14/> Initially, Ka-50N was meant to be fitted with the Merkury Low-Light TV (LLTV) system. Due to lack of funding, the system was late and experienced reliability and capability issues. As a result, focus shifted to [[forward looking infrared]] (FLIR) systems.<ref name=Ka-50N_kamov.net/> Kamov drafted a design in 1993 that included the Shkval-N sighting system with an infrared sensor.<ref name=Donald_p311-14>Donald and March 2004, pp. 311–314.</ref> Many variants were tried. On some, the original Shkval was supplemented by a thermal imaging system, while others saw a complete replacement by the Samshit day-and-night system (also used on Ka-52). Some of the imagers included in the trials were manufactured by the French [[SAGEM]] and [[L.H. Thomson|Thomson]] companies. Kamov was forced to consider foreign analogues as a temporary replacement for domestic imaging systems because of their slow development.<ref name=Ka-50N_kamov.net>[http://www.kamov.net/kamov-army/ka-50n/ "Ka-50N".] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111208110119/http://www.kamov.net/kamov-army/ka-50n/ |date=8 December 2011}} ''kamov.net''.</ref>

Trials led to two "final" versions: Ka-50N "Night Shark" ({{langx|ru|link=no|Ночная акула}}, "[[velvet belly lanternshark]]")<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Mazepov |first1=A. |last2=Mikheev |first2=A. |last3=Zenkin |first3=V. |last4=Zhirnov |first4=A. |last5=Fomin |first5=A. |date=1997 |title=Night Shark and Alligator |journal=Ka-50, Ka-52, Ka-50N – Combat Helicopters |series=Polygon |edition=2 |pages={{nowrap|126–127}} |isbn=5-7656-0005-0}}</ref> and Ka-50Sh ({{langx|ru|link=no|'''Ш'''ар|translit='''Sh'''ar}}, "ball"; because of the spherical FLIR turret). The first Ka-50Sh, which was the eighth pre-production aircraft, Bort 018, first flew on 4 March 1997. The Kamov company and Black Shark logos were displayed on the endplate fins and the vertical tail. It featured the Samshit-50 system installed within a 640&nbsp;mm (25&nbsp;in) diameter sphere under the nose. Shkval system was moved to the nose cone area.<ref name=Andrey_Fomin/> Neither of the Ka-50 night-attack versions has entered full production.<ref name=Ka-50N_kamov.net/>