A Russian Mi-28 attack helicopter is shot down by its own anti-aircraft artillery

Russian anti-aircraft artillery is showing its poor aim, amid a total psychosis created by Ukrainian drones.

The clues pointing to Russia in the Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash
The curious tactic of Russian attack helicopters against Ukrainian defenses

On December 25 Russian anti-aircraft artillery fired on an Azerbaijani commercial airliner in Chechnya, causing it to crash and killing dozens of passengers and crew members on the plane. Now, the victim of the Russians' poor aim would be one of their own military aircraft.

On Wednesday afternoon, January 1, two Russian channels on Telegram, Russian Aviation and Fighter Bomber, reported the downing of a Russian Mil Mi-28 attack helicopter, known as the "Havoc" by NATO. Judging by the messages posted by these channels, both crew members of the Mi-28 would have died.

The Polish online daily Defence24.pl, which specialises in defence issues, reported: "There are no details of the incident yet, except that it could have been a friendly fire incident and that the machine would have fallen victim to its own anti-aircraft defence." There is no immediate word on where the incident occurred, but Ukraine attacked Russian airfields in Taganrog and Milerovo in the Rostov region yesterday, and the downing of the helicopter may be linked to that attack.

According to data published in "The Military Balance 2022" by the International Institute for Strategic Studies, at the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine the Russian Air Force had more than 90 Mi-28N Havoc B and 13 Mi-28UB Havoc (the latter is a training version). According to data published by Oryxspioenkop.com, based on visual evidence, Russia has lost 15 Mi-28s in this war, 11 of them destroyed and 4 damaged on the ground. It is the third Russian helicopter model with the most losses, after the Ka-52 Alligator (63 units lost) and the Mi-8 (39 units lost).

The Mi-28 made its maiden flight on 10 November 1982. In 1993, after many delays, the Mi-28A programme was cancelled, among other reasons because it lacked all-weather capability. The Mi-28N was introduced in 1995, but the first production units were not delivered until 2006, 24 years after the Havoc's maiden flight. Operations of these aircraft and the Ka-52 (also attack helicopters) have been severely hampered in Ukraine for the same reason that the USSR suffered so many losses with its Mi-24s in Afghanistan: the use of portable surface-to-air missiles by the defenders of Ukraine.

---

Photos: Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.