Mi24 Attack Helicopters to Afghanistan

In 2019, India presented the Afghan Air Force with three Mi-24 attack helicopters and three Cheetah light utility helicopters. The Afghans received the Mi-24 helicopters as a replacement for four attack helicopters handed to them in 2015.

The Taliban’s seizure of the assault helicopters comes when Afghanistan’s authority is battling to fend against the rebels’ offensive. With new big cities collapsing every day, the Taliban currently control over 65 percent of Afghanistan’s land.

A short note on Mi24 Attack Helicopters To Afghanistan:

With the takeover of the Kunduz airbase, the Taliban have gained control of a Mi-24 assault helicopter, which India sent to the Afghan Air Force in 2019 to help with counter-terrorism operations.

Taliban shooters have been photographed standing next to the captured assault helicopter. However, the chopper’s rotor blades and engine have been removed, rendering it immobile. The Afghan Air Force is thought to have purposefully abandoned the chopper in this state so that Taliban fighters would be unable to utilize it. 

MI 24 – a good helicopter:

The Mi-24 is a large helicopter that is difficult to control. As a result, it is rarely used in an ambush high altitude role, as we commonly do, because it is underpowered (to the extent that the fitting of exhaust thermal mixing shrouds on the TV3-117V engines will remove about 5,000ft of the effective operational ceiling).

It is, nevertheless, quick and has a lot of energy at high speeds; however, you must be careful how you manage it because heavy collective excursions have been known to chop off the tail.

The troop compartment is an important aspect of the aircraft’s flexibility because it can carry reloads for some mission munitions and additional sensor pallets. The Mi-24K Hind G2 has a 20″ diameter artillery spotting optical telescope.

Helicopters that must bring nose-mounted optics or radar to bear are trapped by their commitment to face a threat. There is significant evidence from both combat (the 101st lost most of its Attack Aviation Battalion to an Iraqi urban ambush while hunting artillery in Najaf in 2003) and the AMUST experimental program that helicopters perform better as a recce asset when they support drones.

Without going full-on Airwolf, envision a palletized dispenser of LOCAAS-sized MAVs that can fly 100-200nm at 300 knots on a roll-on/roll-off basis. You may imagine a helicopter that spots with a LAM-type weapon and kills with a PAM following while carrying fast load stacks of missiles in the cabin.

Back in 2019, India gifted the Mi24 attack helicopters to the Afghan Air Force:

Two Mi-24 V attack helicopters were handed over to the Afghan Air Force in 2019 to replace the four helicopters that New Delhi had previously provided to Afghanistan in 2015. Afghanistan and Belarus agreed to share Mi-24 helicopters, but India paid for them.

During his December 2016 visit to Kabul, Prime Minister Narendra Modi handed over four Mi-35 assault helicopters to the Afghan Air Force. India also provided the Afghan army with three Cheetah light helicopters. The Indian military also trains Afghan soldiers and pilots as part of its aid to the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces.

The Afghan Air Force used these assault helicopters in combat operations and was pleased with their performance because they gave them an advantage on the ground. They did, however, address the issue of spare parts and maintenance for these helicopters a few months ago.

Aside from the choppers sent by India, the Afghan Air Force uses a variety of US-made aircraft, including the UH-60 Black Hawk and MD500 Defender helicopters and the A-29 Super Tucano fixed-wing counter-insurgency specialist aircraft.

Conclusion:

During 2015-16, India provided four Mi-24s to the Afghan Air Force, signaling a substantial reversal from its previous aversion to supplying lethal military weaponry. However, some of these helicopters have been grounded due to a scarcity of spare parts. According to Abdali, India is working on plans to assist in the repair and refurbishment of these Mi-24s and other Russian-origin helicopter transport aircraft used by the Afghan Air Force.