Ukraine Inducts Refurbished Mi-8 Helicopters Back into Service

The Ukrainian Air Force has inducted two refurbished Mi-8 helicopters, Mi-8MTPB and Mi-8MTPI back into service last week.

The helicopters were not in operation owing to the repair work being done at the Konotop Aircraft Repair Plant, “Aviakon”, part of Ukroboronprom, Defence Blog reported on December 22.

The aircraft have large, phased array antennas fitted to the outside of both sides of the main cabin, as well as additional antennas and aerials on the tail and elsewhere.

The Mi-8MTPB is provided with long-range communication equipment and a radar, and it can carry equipment with phased-array antennas for suppression of enemy electronic attack and air defense facilities, such as airborne radars, air defense (artillery) weapons control radars, surveillance and target detection radars and missile radar homing heads.

Mi-8MTPI has the ability to detect and determine the general location and type of hostile emitters, giving it a limited capacity to conduct intelligence gathering missions on enemy defenses.

The direction finding and target locating functionality the Mi-8MTPB and Mi-8MTPI offer might be useful for near real-time monitoring the movement of insurgent forces.