The National Air Corps of Afghanistan, along with Western-made equipment, actively uses Mi-35 combat helicopters in battles with militants of the Taliban terrorist organization banned in Russia.
#BREAKING : An #Afghan Air Force Mi-35 attack helicopter (Russian-made) is firing at Taliban terrorists during one of the episodes of the ongoing confrontation between government forces and terrorists.
#Afghanistan ?? pic.twitter.com/WmYyxar9rk
— Sushmit Patil Sushmit Patil (@PatilSushmit) July 23, 2021
A video has been published on social networks, which demonstrates how a rotorcraft, providing support to ground troops, strikes at ground targets.
Apparently, unguided aircraft missiles of the S-8 type were involved. Each such ammunition of 80 mm caliber weighs, depending on the modification, from 11.3 to 15.2 kg. They hit the enemy at ranges of 2000-4000 meters. One "flying tank" takes on board up to 40 such bunks during the task.
"Thirty-fifths" can also be armed with more powerful and heavy 240-mm S-24 weighing up to 235 kg with a warhead weighing 123 kg. They have a launch range of up to 2000 meters.
Guided weapons are represented by anti-tank guided missiles "Sturm-V". There is also a 12.7-mm 9-A-624 machine gun.
The command of the Afghan Air Force, despite the pressure of the Americans, did not abandon the Russian-made helicopters, since the light MD-530 supplied from the United States have a number of serious shortcomings and are inferior to the Mi-35 in a number of characteristics, especially in survivability.
Alexey Moiseev
