Mil Mi-24P 'Hind-F'
The cannon Hind — a fixed twin-barrel 30 mm gun on the right side of the nose replaces the chin turret · In production 1981–1989
The Mi-24P (izdeliye 243) answered complaints that the 12.7 mm chin gun lacked punch. The turret was removed and a GSh-30-2K twin-barrel 30 mm cannon fitted in a fixed NPU-30 mount on the right side of the nose, with 250 rounds. Its barrels are 900 mm longer than the standard GSh-30-2 and cooled by an evaporative system, and the gun has two rates of fire: 300–400 or 2,000–2,600 rounds a minute. Because the gun is fixed, the pilot aims it by pointing the helicopter.
Production ran from 1981 to 1989, and the Shturm missiles of the Mi-24V were retained. East Germany received Mi-24Ps in its final years; one of them, built in 1989 as NVA '358', became 96+41 with the unified German forces in 1990 and was transferred to Hungary in 1995, where it now flies as '331'.
Hungary reactivated its overhauled Mi-24Ps in dark grey and showed them at NATO Days and the Royal International Air Tattoo before retiring its Hinds in 2026. Later Russian versions include the night-capable Mi-24PN and the Mi-24P-1M, unveiled at MAKS in 2019.
