The Mi-28 boasts infrared and daylight cameras, a nose-mounted 30-millimeter cannon and stub wings that can simultaneously carry as many as eight precision-guided anti-tank missiles and 10 unguided rockets, each of which packs the explosive power of an artillery shell. The Mi-28 can fly as fast as 200 miles per hour. Its cockpit armor is thick enough to deflect heavy machine gun fire. Able to spot and strike targets from miles away, the Mi-28 combines the qualities of an aerial spy and a flying tank.
In addition to Mi-28s, the Russian air wing based near Damascus includes huge, heavily-armed Mi-35s and high-tech Ka-52 copters, the latter specializing in flying close air support for Special Operations Forces. Kremlin-backed T.V. network Russia Today revealed the Mi-35s—which can transport squads of infantry in addition to firing guns and rockets—in a December report on Moscow’s contingent in western Syria.
Around the same time, Syrian media inadvertantly revealed the Mi-28s and Ka-52s’ presence in the country in a T.V. report about the November incident in which Turkish jets shot down a Russian bomber. Russia’s government-owned Sputnik News site soon followed with a piece celebrating the “finest Russian combat helicopters com[ing] to Syria.”
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