Russia may have transferred ‘night hunter’ helicopters to Iran

Video shared on social networks on February 4 recorded a scene of a Russian-made Mi-28 armed helicopter flying over Iran’s capital Tehran. At least four previously published photos also showed a Mi-28NE painted with digital camouflage patterns, with orange and gray patches for the desert environment.

The photos appear to have been taken at a hangar belonging to Pars Aerospace Services Company, a business based at Tehran’s Mehrabad International Airport and believed to be linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Russian and Iranian officials have not yet commented on the information.

The Mil Mi-28 armed helicopter was developed by the Soviet Union in the 1970s and made its first flight in 1982, specializing in the mission of searching and destroying armored vehicles and attacking underground targets.

The Mi-28 crew consists of two people, the helicopter can reach a maximum speed of 320 km/h with a range of more than 430 km. The Mi-28 is equipped with a 30 mm caliber 2A42 automatic cannon, along with 4 weapon pylons that can mount bombs, guided missiles, rocket launchers and clusters of two 23 mm GSh-23L cannons.

The first complete version, named Mi-28A, continued to be developed later, but was not put into service due to inferior features compared to the Kamov Ka-50/52 helicopter.

The deeply upgraded Mi-28N variant, nicknamed the “night hunter”, entered service with the Russian military in 2009. The aircraft is equipped with mm-wave radar mounted on the top of the main rotor shaft, thermal imaging camera and laser rangefinder, capable of operating day and night in all weather conditions.

Mi-28NE is an export variant of the Mi-28N series. In August 2018, Russian defense corporation Helicopters launched an improved Mi-28NE model, equipped with an infrared jamming system to deal with heat-seeking missiles, an air filter for the engine to operate in desert environments and new digital camouflage patterns.

“The Mi-28 is a significant addition to Tehran’s arsenal. Iran’s main attack helicopter today is the US-made AH-1J, purchased in the 1970s and the Iranian military is increasingly finding it difficult to maintain their operations,” editor Joseph Trevithick of the US military website War Zone comment.

According to expert Trevithick, the Mi-28 helicopter appearing in Iran shows that Russia seems to have or is about to transfer a large amount of military equipment to the Middle Eastern country. Civil aviation tracking data shows that several Russian Il-76 transports arrived in Iran in January, likely carrying Mi-28s or other equipment.