The Houthis began using the Mi-24 "flying tank" in Yemen

Supporters of the Yemeni Shiite movement Ansar Allah (Houthis) used a "flying tank" - a Mi-24 combat helicopter for the first time during the civil war against the formations of pro-Saudi President Hadi.

Last week, video footage appeared on the Network, taken in the mountainous Jabal al-Balak al-Sharqi area in the south of Marib province. A rotorcraft flying at low altitude brought down unguided aircraft missiles on the enemy.

According to some reports, the appearance of the "twenty-fourth" was a real shock for the Khadists, who did not have air defense equipment at all, even portable anti-aircraft missile systems.

As a result, the demoralized units were forced to retreat from the lines that they had previously defended.

Ten years ago, before the split of the country, the government air force numbered twenty-four Mi-24/35 and thirty-four Mi-17. Previously, it was believed that all of them were destroyed on earth.

At the same time, it was reported that the Houthis were able to hide several units of this equipment from the air strikes of the pro-Saudi coalition forces - photos of camouflaged helicopters appeared, and some experts assumed that sooner or later these turntables would be involved in the battles. As we can see, these forecasts, however, with a great delay, have come true.

After such an appearance of the "twenty-fourth" in social networks, they joke that now we can expect the use of MiG-29 aircraft, for sure some of the available samples were also saved.

Alexey Brusilov