Mil Mi-24 Hind

The Mil Mi-24 gunship, NATO reporting name "Hind", is a Soviet attack helicopter commissioned in the early 1970s. Export versions of the same helicopter are sometimes given the model numbers Mi-25 and Mi-35, but presumably the ones used in Ukraine were transferred to the military of the Ukraine before the dissolution of the Soviet Union and are not export variants.

Overview

Well armoured and armed, the Hind has a feature unique among gunships: the ability to deploy its cargo of 8 fully armed soldiers or up to 1500 kgs of equipment. While the technology is dated by modern standards, the Hind remains a reliable and trustworthy vehicle to patrol the Zone and wipe out any opposition from the skies.

It is armed with a chin-mounted 12.7 mm Gatling type gun, pylon-mounted rockets, and can reach a 300 km/h cruise speed.

Crew: 3 (Pilot, Weapons Sys. Officer, Technician)

Passengers: 8 (Fully equipped)

Hind downed - STALKER Shadow of Chernobyl

A Hind D flying in the Wild Territory and getting shot down by Wolfhound's mercenaries

Operators

The Ukrainian Military is the sole operator of the Hind in the Zone and these aircraft are a common sight on the outskirts, as they patrol the skies and occasionally blow a rookie stalker to smithereens. They also used them as a transport for Spetsnaz operatives for certain operations.

Interestingly, Duty has a single Hind parked on top of one of the buildings in the Agroprom Research Institute during the events of Clear Sky, which is absent in Shadow of Chernobyl. Given their military background, and the number of abandoned choppers that can be scavenged for parts, it's possible that they have access to at least one working gunship, though this particular aircraft is nowhere near being airworthy

The Mi-24 will never attack the player without provocation (it can possibly attack them if fired upon), though it appears to be a functioning NPC capable of firing its cannon or rockets at any NPCs hostile to the Military.

Notes

• An Mi-24 appears in the Agroprom Research Institute in Shadow of Chernobyl, where it is seen offloading Army and Spetsnaz troops to attack the Marked One and the other Stalkers. It will hover around the area briefly after the Marked One locates his flash drive, and may fire rocket salvos or its machine gun at mutants or bandits that spawn nearby.
• A small unit of Mi-24s appear during the assault on the Chernobyl NPP in Shadow of Chernobyl, one of which offloads a squad of Military Stalkers in Strelok's path, the rest performing strafing runs on Monolith fighters. While they don't really attack Strelok, if he's out in the open or fires upon them they'll fire their cannon or a rocket salvo at him, while the former offers a small window to take cover due to their mediocre accuracy, the latter is utterly lethal, as getting hit by one of their rockets is equivalent to taking a direct hit from an RPG-7 warhead; in other words, it's an instant kill. Another is destroyed by a massive Electro anomaly east of the plant before it can drop its troops. Despite presumably being annihilated in the blowout, one of the gunships which strafes the NPP manages to gather enough anomaly data to make the maps used in Operation Fairway.
• Another Mi-24 can be spotted in Yantar after shutting off the Kaymanov emitter in Lab X16. It is presumably used by Duty or the Ecologists to mop up the remaining mutants and/or zombies still lurking around the entrance.
• There is one stalker who managed to save enough money and buy the helicopter. He flew for about 20 minutes over the Zone before the fuel ran out. Now he carries the gas in canisters to the aircraft to get it from near Pripyat.
• In the beginning of SoC you see an Mi-24 flying overhead to the center of the zone. Its fate has not been revealed.
• Using noclip/fly cheat it's possible to see that the Mi-24 shot down by Wolfhound crashes in the outskirts of the map, and the crashed Mi-24 is already there even before the Mi-24 shows up.

See also

• Stingray - A series of Hinds modified by the military for zone use, which were used during the events of Call of Pripyat to secure the center of the zone. They were all destroyed.

Gallery

A seemingly derelict Hind D gunship inside Duty's Agroprom base during Clear Sky

Two Hind gunships attempting to clear Yantar of zombies.

The downed Hind gunship used by Professor Kruglov's team.

Mi 24 Helicopters in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call of Pripyat

Mi 24 Hind in Call of Pripyat

The bottom of Mi 24 in Call of Pripyat

Mil Mi 24 at the CNPP assasult in Shadow of Chernobyl

The player being hit by a rocket.

Hind underside as seen in Wild Territory

A Military Mi-24 patrolling around the Rookie Camp (S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl)

MI-35 in S.T.A.L.K.E.R call of pripyat at the beginning of the game