The
Mil Mi-24 (Cyrillic
Миль Ми-24, NATO reporting name '
Hind') is a large helicopter gunship (and attack helicopter)
and low-capacity troop transport (Carries 8) produced by Mil Moscow Helicopter Plant and operated from 1972 by the Soviet Air Force, its successors, and over thirty other nations. In October 2007, the Russian Air Force announced it would replace its 250 Mi-24 helicopter gunships with 300 more modern Mi-28s and possibly Ka-50s by 2015.
In NATO circles the export versions,
Mi-25 and
Mi-35, are simply denoted with a letter suffix as "Hind D" and "Hind E" respectively. Soviet pilots called the aircraft
летающий танк (
letayushchiy tank, “flying tank”). More common unofficial nicknames were
Крокодил (
Krokodil, “Crocodile”), due to the helicopter's new camouflage scheme
and
Стакан (
Stakan, “Glass”), because of the flat glass plates which surround the three place cockpit of the Mi-24A.
