On Friday, the Russian Defense Ministry published footage of strikes against militants in the region of Raqqa by Russian TU-95MS strategic bombers. The flights to the targets were made over the territories of Iran and Iraq. The bombers were covered en route by Sukhoi Su-30SM and Su-35S fighters out of Khmeimim airbase. ISIS terrorists training camps and their control center were destroyed. They used next-generation KH-101 long-range cruise missiles.

Both Russian military helicopters, the Mi-28 "Night Hunter" and Ka-52 "Alligator" also performed well in Syria. Special correspondent Alexander Rogatkin has prepared a new film about these rotor-winged machines. You can watch the full version on Thursday on the Russia24 TV channel after the news at 3 p.m. and again at 10 p.m. We'll show you a fragment of it.



The 55th Helicopter Regiment is in battle formation over the snow-covered fields of Kuban. Russian attack helicopters are conducting tactical training maneuvers in Krasnodar Krai. You can see the legendary Mi-28 "Night Hunter" making a target run. Now, it will release a volley of unguided missiles. The "Hunters" having finished firing, get support from updated Mi-8AMTSH helicopters, nicknamed "Terminators" due to their firepower. The target is an enemy airfield from which two bombers are trying to take off. Their roles are played by old aircraft which have been written off. There are targets that imitate an enemy car convoy, or an enemy support point. That is, the pilots will shoot at whatever targets the assigned mission requires.

After a few minutes, the attack has left the airstrip looking like a plowed field, and the planes' fuselages with more holes than a colander. All combat aircraft leave the airport one by one for the field training exercises. They constitute the backbone of the Helicopter Regiment. "Terminators" are replaced by Mi-35's, and "Night Hunters" by the latest Ka-52 "Alligators". Here you can see them being equipped with unguided missiles and artillery shells for the automatic guns.

"I’ve worked on different helicopters. I can say that this new generation helicopter can’t be compared to any previous versions because it’s much more powerful. It can perform absolutely any task perfectly in any weather, day or night. This helicopter raises the bar for quality. For a pilot, I'd say, it’s a dream come true".

The 55th is the best-equipped Helicopter Regiment in Russia. It has the largest number of advanced attack helicopters. Artyom, a senior Mi-28 "Night Hunter" pilot, is, of course, a huge fan of Mil helicopters, but believes that a true professional must be able to pilot any equipment. "When I joined the Regiment, I started out flying the good old Mi-24's, and, to be honest, we doubted that any new equipment would ever arrive. But then, when new aviation equipment began arriving, there was immediate enthusiasm, a desire to retrain, and to fly on the new equipment and perfect our performance to a professional level".

The "Night Hunters" are assembled not far from the Kuban airfield at the Rostov Helicopter Plant. If it was once said that the victories of our army were forged on the shop floors of defense plants, now, we can say that the victories of Russian helicopter pilots are woven from these thin threads, which are eventually turned into the strongest possible blades for their helicopters It all comes together, and out comes a helicopter. Fiberglass filaments are glued into a belt, and the belt is later wound onto what will become a blade. The blade shop is adorned with a poster in the developed socialism style, calling on everyone to follow quality standards. But, of course, a modern QC Department is better.

The Mi-28 "Night Hunter" takes its recognizable shape on the assembly shop floor in the Rostov Plant. Here, they apply the ceramic bulletproof plates over the cockpit with adhesive, which make the Mi-28 helicopter the most highly-protected in the world. The cockpit windows are also bulletproof. Footage of tests in the 1990s shocked foreign experts. Russian designers tested the bulletproofing directly on themselves: "You can see how the side window reacts to the impact of 7.62 caliber armor-piercing bullets. The glass isn’t broken. Visibility is sufficient". Developers said that at the time that they were 100% sure that the crew had the most reliable protection possible.

Some believe that the heart of a helicopter is the rotor which spins the blades, some say it’s the engine, And some say it’s this metal container, filled with — we're now revealing a military secret — ordinary Russian vodka. "I do not exclude that this is just our own "know-how". It’s a tank which contains an alcohol-water mixture. Vodka! This is vodka! Well, Dmitri Mendeleev used to call the mixture of water and alcohol in a certain proportion "vodka". So that means that the helicopter will not fly without vodka? It will fly, but it will be impossible for it to fire missiles".

It turns out that it's impossible to make a successful attack without the traditional Russian drink. The helicopter's engine would simply stall due to the rocket exhaust. "I really like the aircraft. If we draw a comparison for a lay-person, just imagine driving a BMW X6. You study the car really well just once, and then you can enjoy it and use its features.

In this way, like on a shooting range, the “Night Hunter" is pulverizing the equipment of Syrian militants. That one was a moving target, and we didn’t switch on automatic mode, which means there was no target lock, and the operator was in control. "We perform the linking and lock onto the target. So we send the targeting information to the Mi-28's HUD We also have a laser range-measuring device. We get the distance to the target, 800 meters".

After just a few months using Attack guided missiles in Syria, some crews have even learned how to drive them into the militants' underground tunnels. This missile destroys an enemy tank near Palmyra. And this one — a Grad rocket launcher.