Mi-8AMTSh Hip (Mi-171Sh)
The armed assault Hip — guided missiles, rockets and gun pods on six hardpoints · In service 2010 · Export as Mi-171Sh
The Mi-8AMTSh is an armed assault version of the Ulan-Ude-built Mi-8AMT (Mi-171). It adds improved navigation and targeting systems, self-protection equipment and six hardpoints for guided and unguided weapons, including the Shturm-V system with 9M120 Ataka anti-tank missiles, 80 mm rocket pods and gun pods, while keeping the cabin for troops or cargo.
The Russian Air Force received its first batch of ten in December 2010 and a second in June 2011, and around 40 had been delivered by 2014. Later versions include the Arctic Mi-8AMTSh-VA, built for low temperatures and polar night, and the Mi-8AMTSh-VN fire-support variant, first reportedly delivered in December 2021.
For export the type is sold as the Mi-171Sh. The Czech Republic and Croatia ordered it in 2005 and 2007 — Croatian aircraft have served with NATO's KFOR mission in Kosovo — and Peru, Bangladesh, Ghana, Angola, Pakistan and others followed.
