there have been many aircraft made by the soviet union, but one of the most well known catagories of aircraft they built were helicopters.

one of the most well known and praised helicopters from the soviet union was the one, the only... MI-24 Multy role helicopter!

like many of the soviet unions vehicles the mi-24 has gotten a cult-like following mainly through the soviet union "peacocking" about there tech and how many have been exported. the mi-24 unlike alot of western vehicles have been heavily exported all around the world. the main idea of the helicopter is that it dosent have anything bad about it but it just has more pros than cons. for example, it's fast and is surprisingly maneuverable but it is not at all aerodynamic, leaving it to suffer sometimes in harsh environments and can be nocked around pretty hard in harsh wind. it also can act as a attack helicopter and transport helicopter or both at once; thanks to its relatively large frame it can hold infantry in the main body.

now we are going to talk about two helicopters that both went up head to head to fight for the place of the newest attack helicopter adopted by the soviet union and or post soviet russia. on the left we have the mi-28 and on the right we have the Ka-52

first we have to talk about both the helicopters, first let's talk about the mi-28, the mi-28 is the younger cousin of the mi-24 with the same strengths and weaknesses other than the troop transport aspect, being fast sturdy but not aerodynamic leading to it also struggling in harsh environments. it's also much smaller than the mi-24 making it harder to spot and faster its also just as strong if not stronger than the mi-24 thanks to modern technology. it can carry 3 armaments on both its arms/wings and has a 30mm autocannon from the bmp-2 under the nose. in general a pretty standard helicopter and it does a good job at being one, but now we have to talk about the ka-52. the ka-52 is a beefy helicopter, instead of having one pair of blades it has two which might seem weird at first but actually it makes it more stable and faster not to mention while talking about speed how it's actually aerodynamic thanks to its quite weird shape and retractable wheels. it can also carry 3 armaments on each wing but it has something which i think is quite ugly, to make it more aerodynamic they placed a side mounted gun wich can only shoot anything directly below or in front of it. leading to it having to stay hovering at an uncomfortable angle to use it. personally i like the mi-28 more but the ka-52 won because it was more aerodynamic and generaly a more modern frame.