Mi-8

The Mi-8 is a family of transport helicopters featured in ArmA: Cold War Assault, ArmA: Armed Assault, ArmA 2, and ARMA Reforger.

ArmA: Cold War Assault

Mi-17
Faction	Soviet Union
Type	Transport Helicopter
Seats	13 seats: 1× Pilot 12× Passengers
Item capacity	Max: 3× Weapons 20× Magazines
Top speed	~ 233 km/h
Fuel capacity	1000 fuel units
Primary armament	Main: 6× 57 mm Rocket Pods
Secondary armament	None
Variants	None
Games

The Mi-17 is used exclusively by Soviet military forces in ArmA: Cold War Assault.

Overview

• Roles:
  • Light gunship
  • Troop transport

«

Mi-17 multi-role helicopter was developed at Mil Design Bureau as an upgrade to the outdated Mi-8 and can be distinguished from its predecessor by a starboard mounted tail rotor. Capable of carrying large cargo, even with the back doors removed, Mi-17 can be retro-fitted to accommodate up to 24 executives or 30 troops and 20 wounded. Specific features include engine load-sharing system which increases output of shaft-turbine engines should its twin become damaged. Vehicle Description

»

Design

The Mi-17 is a multi-role, twin-turbine medium helicopter. It stems from the Mi-8 family of transport helicopters and is one of the most prolific utility helicopter designs ever built since 1961.

Armament
By default, the Mi-8 is always armed with six 57 mm rocket pods fitted onto stub wings mounted on both sides of the fuselage (three on each).

Each individual pod stores up to 32 rockets at a time for a combined total of 192 rockets. All rockets are fitted with high-explosive (HE) warheads.

Features
The mainstay of the Soviet military's tactical air mobility, the Mi-17 is capable of transporting a single full-size squad into or out of battle. It also carries an impressive loadout of six rocket pods loaded with HE warheads, which allows it to serve as a light gunship as well.

Mobility
The Mi-17 has decent handling and speed for a helicopter of its size. It can comfortably accelerate to a maximum speed of 240 km/h, though it needs to remain on a steady flight path in order to achieve this. Unlike its American equivalent however, the Mi-17's bulkier airframe does cause it to have a much lower top speed. It will suffer from speed loss much more easily whenever the helicopter attempts to bank or gain altitude.

Drawbacks
The Mi-17 has slightly less armour plating and is more vulnerable to taking damage from anti-aircraft fire compared to the American UH-60.

At the same time, the Mi-17 lacks heavy machine guns for armament. It cannot defend itself against ground threats that are not directly in front of it, since the Mi-17 will need to turn around to face the attackers directly in order to return fire.

Crew Capacity
The Mi-17 has a maximum crew capacity of just one for the pilot, who also controls the rocket pods. The rear cabin is capable of transporting twelve passengers at a time.

---

Protection

The Mi-17 has 50 points worth of armour plating.

---

Armament

The pilot controls the 57 mm Rocket pods:

57 mm Rocket

Damage type	Base damage value
High-Explosive	400

Unguided air-to-ground rockets. Highly effective against groups of infantry and unarmoured ground vehicles.

The pods can launch rockets at a rate of one every 0.1 seconds (600 rounds per minute), and has an effective firing range of between 250-500 metres up to a maximum range of 1,000 metres.

The rockets have initial launch velocities of 44 m/s and take 3.5 seconds for their motors to reach a top in-flight speed of 1,000 m/s. The warheads themselves have a blast radius of 3 metres.

---

Trivia

• The in-game version is incorrectly called the "Mi17", which is actually the designation used for export Mi-8s in widespread use throughout the Warsaw Pact and with the Soviet Union's allies.
  • Cold War Assault's Mi-8s should be designated as the "Mi-8MT", as this is the proper name for modernised variants then-used by the Red Army.

---

Gallery

ArmA: Armed Assault

Mi17
Faction	SLA
Type	Transport Helicopter
Seats	MG variant: 18 seats: 1× Pilot 1× Co-Pilot 1× Crew Chief 15× Passengers Rocket variant: 17 seats: 1× Pilot 1× Co-Pilot 15× Passengers
Item capacity	Max: 30× Weapons 150× Magazines
Top speed	~ 221 km/h
Fuel capacity	1000 fuel units
Primary armament	MG Loadout only: 1× PKT 7.62 mm Rocket Loadout only: 6× 57 mm Rocket Pods
Secondary armament	None
Variants	Mi17 (57mm Rockets)
Games

The Mi17 is used exclusively by SLA forces in ArmA: Armed Assault.

Overview

• Roles:
  • Light gunship
  • Troop transport

«

The Mi-17 (Hip-H in NATO designation) is a multirole helicopter used to resupply armed forces or insert special forces detachments. It can also be heavily armed with guns and rockets. It is often used for air assault, direct air support, electronic warfare, medevac and search and rescue. Library Description

»

Design

The Armed Assault Mi17 retains the same configurations and serves in the same roles as its Cold War Assault counterpart.

Armament
It can now be armed with either a 7.62 mm medium machine gun mounted onto the left-side cabin door, or up to six 57 mm rocket pods fitted onto stub wings attached to both sides of the airframe.

The PKT feeds from a pre-loaded 100-round belt boxes and has up to more 11 boxes spare to reload from (for a combined amount of 1,200 rounds).

The rocket pods on the other hand each contain 16 rockets fitted with HE warheads. Altogether, the pilot has access to 96 rockets in total.

Features
The primary transport helicopter of the SLA, the Mi17 is mostly identical to its Cold War-era predecessor save for its ability to mount a side door MMG.

Compared to the American UH-60, the rocket-armed Mi17 is still better at providing air-to-ground fire support due to carrying 96 rockets at a time, allowing a single Mi17 to perform multiple strafing runs at a time. The passenger cabin on the Mi17 is also much larger and can transport two additional passengers at a time.

Drawbacks
Despite being the larger helicopter of the two, the Mi17 is actually less well-armoured than the UH-60 and at least for the MG-armed Mi17, is inferior at suppressing ground targets.

Because the PKT is only fitted onto the left side door, at least one side of the helicopter will always be left exposed to ground fire unless the pilot swivels the helicopter to face the gunner in that direction. The PKT is also very slow-firing and won't suppress targets as effectively, since it can only attain a fire rate of 800 rounds per minute. The UH-60's twin M134 miniguns on the other hand, can each attain fire rates of up to 1,200 RPM.

Crew Capacity
Both variants of the Mi17 can transport up to fifteen passengers at a time (the co-pilot is considered to be the fifteenth passenger). Depending on the loadout, it will also support a crew consisting of the pilot and optionally, a crew chief manning the side door gun.

---

Variants

• Mi17
• Mi17 (57mm Rockets)

Baseline transport variant. Can carry up to 15 passengers at a time.

This model is always armed with a PKT 7.62 mm MMG on the left-side cabin door. The PKT has access to twelve 100-round belt boxes.

Identical to the baseline variant but is armed with six 57 mm rocket pods mounted onto stub wings attached to both sides of the airframe.

The 57 mm rocket pods each contain 16 HE rockets, and have a combined total of 96 rockets. The pods themselves are controlled by the pilot.

This model does not have a side door gunner. It transports the same number of passengers as the regular MMG-armed Mi17.

---

Protection

All variants of the Mi17 have base armour values of 25.

Hull

Mi17 hulls can withstand up to 25 points of damage.

Engine

Their engines can only withstand 6.25 points of damage before failing.

Instruments

The Mi17's onboard systems can only incur a meagre 3.75 points of damage.

Main rotor

The main rotors can take 7.5 points of damage before breaking.

Tail rotor

The tail rotors can only withstand 5 points of damage.

---

Armament

The pilot controls the 57 mm Rocket pods on the rocket pod-armed variant while the crew chief handles the cabin door-mounted PKT machine gun:

PKT

NOTE: Only available on the baseline Mi17 variant.

Base damage value	Initial velocity (m/s)
12	900

7.62 mm medium machine gun. Good against infantry, unarmoured ground vehicles and low-flying helicopters.

It can attain a fire rate of up to 800 RPM with a muzzle velocity of 900 m/s. Accuracy-wise, the PKT has a dispersion of 0.003 rad at distances of up to ~ 700 metres away. It takes 7 seconds to reload another belt box.

57 mm Rocket

NOTE: Only available on the Mi17 (57mm Rockets) variant.

Damage type	Base damage value
High-Explosive	150

Unguided air-to-ground rockets fitted with high-explosive (HE) warheads.

Rockets are always fired in pairs, with a 0.2 second delay in-between volleys. They are launched with an initial velocity of 44 m/s and only take 0.2 seconds to reach a top speed of 900 m/s in-flight. The warheads have a blast radius of 12 metres.

---

Trivia

• On release, the PKT's sights were completely misaligned and did not zero correctly against targets located beyond 300 metres. The cockpit's compass was also improperly configured and did not rotate towards the Mi17's actual heading.
  • Both issues were subsequently addressed following the release of Patch 1.04 and 1.06 (respectively).

---

Gallery

Rocket-armed variant.

Ditto.

ArmA 2

Mi-8
Faction	CDF ACR ChDKZ Russian Armed Forces Takistani Army United Nations
Type	Transport Helicopter
Seats	Armed military variants: 18 seats: 1× Pilot 1× Co-Pilot 2× Crew Chiefs 15× Passengers Civilian/unarmed military variants: 16 seats: 1× Pilot 1× Co-Pilot 15× Passengers
Item capacity	Max: 30× Weapons 150× Magazines 10× Backpacks
Top speed	240 km/h
Fuel capacity	1000 fuel units
Primary armament	Variable; see Variants section for each individual model
Secondary armament	Defensive: 120× Countermeasures (Flare)
Variants	Mi-17, Mi-17-IVA, Mi-8MT, Mi-8MT Medevac, Mi-8MTV-3, Mi-171Sh
Games

The Mi-8 and its various sub-variants are transport helicopters used by several BLUFOR, REDFOR and INDFOR factions in ArmA 2.

Overview

• Roles:
  • Light gunship
  • Troop transport

«

The Mi-17 (Hip-H in NATO designation) is a multirole helicopter used to resupply armed forces or insert special forces detachments. It can also be heavily armed with guns and rockets. It is often used for air assault, direct air support, electronic warfare, medevac and search and rescue. Armoury Description

»

Design

In ArmA 2, the Mi-8 family serves in largely the same role and capacity as its Armed Assault predecessor. As before, it can fulfil both troop transport and light gunship duties but is now available in many more variants rather than just a single model.

Armament
All armed military variants of the Mi-8 family are fitted with cabin door-mounted 7.62 mm medium machine guns. The PKTs are pre-loaded with a single 100-round belt box. They each have access to eleven spare belt boxes, which form a combined total of 1,200 rounds.

Features
The workhorse of many ex-Soviet militaries, insurgent groups, and even civilian air freight/aviation companies, the Mi-8 family continues to remain as a rugged and highly reliable transport helicopter.

Unique to the Mi-8 family, almost every armed variant is always equipped with PKT machine guns affixed to either the side or rear doors of the passenger cabin. This allows the Mi-8's crew to defend itself during landings or pick-ups, whereas other light/medium transport helicopters must rely on other craft to support them.

Drawbacks
The Mi-8 family is not particularly resistant to small arms fire or AA weaponry. A short burst of shells from the ZU-23 for example, can quickly down even the Russian Mi-8MTV-3 or Czech Mi-17Sh.

At the same time, all variants of the Mi-8 have relatively poor handling and suffer greatly from speed loss due to the drag caused by their large airframes. In contrast, the U.S. Army's Black Hawk or the USMC's MH-60S are far more agile in addition to being slightly tougher despite being smaller helicopters (dimension-wise).

Crew Capacity
All Mi-8 variants have a crew capacity of two for the pilot and co-pilot (who is considered to be a passenger), and can carry up to fifteen passengers at a time.

Depending on whether it is an armed/unarmed military or civilian variant, up to three additional crew chief positions may also be present.

---

Variants

• Mi-8
• Mi-17
• Mi-17-IVA
• Mi-8MT
• Mi-8MT Medevac
• Mi-8MTV-3
• Mi-171Sh

Baseline export model. Used by the Takistani Army and UN peacekeepers.

This variant is fitted with two PKT machine guns, one affixed to each side door. The PKTs are pre-loaded with a single 100-round belt box, and have eleven more in reserve for a total of 1,200 rounds (per PKT).

Alternate export model. Used by the CDF and Chernarussian civilian air freight/transport companies.

It is functionally and armament-wise identical to the baseline Mi-8. The only exception is that civilian Mi-17s do not have access to the door-mounted PKT machine guns nor defensive flare countermeasures.

Aeromedical evacuation variant exclusively employed by the CDF. Identical to the Mi-17 but lacks armament.

The Mi-17-IVA can heal wounded infantry that approach it and "use" its medical supplies.

Used by ChDKZ insurgents. It is also completely identical to the baseline Mi-17 in terms of armament and avionics.

Employed by both the Russian military and ChDKZ insurgents.

There are no functional differences to the CDF Mi-17-IVA.

Modernised variant exclusive to the Russian military.

This model has a third PKT machine gun mounted to the rear cabin entrance, and is also fitted with stub wings on both sides of the fuselage. Each wing is affixed with three S-5 rocket pods that can fire high-explosive (HE) tipped 57 mm unguided rockets, with each pod containing 22 rockets (two pods only contain 21) for a combined total of 128 rockets.

For targeting purposes, the pilot can also toggle an aim assistant heads up display to help land hits with the 57 mm rockets.

Modernised Czech-operated variant.

The Mi-171Sh is actually available with two loadouts, the standard PKT-only armed variant or the rocket pod equipped model. The Mi-171Sh fitted with rocket pods carries six of them on stub wings, with each pod containing 32 HE warhead-tipped rockets for a combined total of 192.

---

Camouflage

• Crocodile (Mi-8MTV-3)
• Crocodile (Mi-8MT) - Medical
• Civilian (Mi-17)
• Woodland (Mi-17)
• Insurgent (Mi-8MT)
• Insurgent (Mi-8MT) - Medical
• Desert (Mi-8)
• Grey (Mi-17Sh)
• Grey (Mi-17Sh) - Rockets
• UN (Mi-8)

1/10

• Crocodile: Two-tone olive green paint camouflage scheme. Exclusively used on Russian Mi-8s.
• Civilian: Flat white paint scheme with blue/pale red stripes running across the fuselage. Has additional signage in the form of the AMA letters on both sides of the airframe. Only employed on civilian Mi-17s.
• Woodland: Olive green paint scheme with dark brown camouflage blobs. Primarily used by CDF Mi-17 variants.
• Insurgent: Two-tone tan/green camouflage scheme. Used on ChDKZ Mi-8s.
• Desert: Two-tone desert tan/olive green camouflage scheme. Used on Mi-8s operated by the Takistani Army.
• Grey: Two-tone grey/dark grey paint scheme. Only used on the Czech Mi-171Sh.
• UN: Pattern-less white paint scheme. Used on Mi-8s operated by UN peacekeepers.

---

Protection

All variants of the Mi-8 have base armour values of 25.

Hull

The hull can survive 25 points of damage.

Engines

The engines can only incur 6.25 points of damage before failing. Destroying them will cause the Mi-8 to immediately lose power.

Instruments

Flight instruments and avionic systems will fail after taking 3.75 points of damage.

Main rotor

The main rotor will be disabled if it takes more than 7.5 points of damage.

Only 30% of damage onto the main rotors are transferred onto the Mi-8's main "health" pool. If destroyed, it will become almost impossible to maintain lift.

Tail rotor

The tail rotor will be disabled if it takes more than 5 points of damage.

Only 10% of damage onto the tail rotor is transferred onto the Mi-8's main "health" pool. Torque cannot be controlled if it is destroyed.

---

Armament

Weaponry varies depending on the helicopter variant. In most cases, the PKT 7.62 mm-chambered machine guns are controlled by crew chief and rear gunner positions. They do not have access to any vision enhancing optics but can utilise the PKT's dedicated gunsight to assist with aiming.

Only the pilot exclusively controls the stub wing-fitted rocket pods (S-5). The pilot also does not have any enhanced vision optics, but can toggle a Heads Up Display (HUD) in the cockpit to help with estimating the impact point:

PKT

NOTE: Available on all armed variants of the Mi-8/Mi-17.

Base damage value	Aerodynamic friction	Initial velocity (m/s)
12	-0.00096	855

7.62 mm medium machine gun.

It can attain a fire rate of 800 RPM with a muzzle velocity of 855 m/s. Accuracy-wise, dispersion is always fixed at 0.00125 rad regardless of range. It takes 5 seconds to finish reloading a fresh linked belt or belt box.

S-5

NOTE: Only available on the Russian Mi-8MTV-3 and Czech Mi-17Sh (Rockets) variants.

Damage type	Base damage value	Maximum speed (m/s)
High-Explosive	150	580

Unguided air-to-ground rockets.

Rockets are always fired in pairs. The pods have a firing delay of 0.08 seconds in-between volleys (750 RPM) and are launched with an initial velocity of 44 m/s. They take a further 1.1 seconds to reach a top speed of 580 m/s in mid-flight.

The warheads are high-explosive (HE) based and have a blast radius of 12 metres.

---

Avionics

MAWS

With the exception of civilian Mi-17s, all other variants of the Mi-8/Mi-17 possess Missile Approach Warning Systems, and will alert their pilots to incoming missiles that are already in mid-flight.

RWR

Military variants of the Mi-8/Mi-17 family has access to Radar Warning Receivers and will warn their pilots of being locked onto by radar-based targeting systems.

IWR

Military Mi-8s/Mi-17s are fitted with an Infrared Warning Receiver and will alert the pilot whenever they are being locked onto by infrared-based targeting systems.

---

Trivia

• It is unique for being the only helicopter platform in ArmA 2 that is utilised by multiple factions and retains the most variants.
  • However, the differences between Mi-8 models are largely cosmetic or armament-based rather than being different function-wise.
• On release, all variants in the Mi-8 family initially lacked the ability to deploy defensive countermeasures, and were only "upgraded" to be able to do so with the release of the Operation Arrowhead expansion pack.
• Following the latest Steam version patches (Community Configuration Project/CorePatch), all military Mi-8/Mi-17 models were upgraded with RWRs in addition to a MAWS. The gunsights for both regular PKT and rocket pod-armed helicopters were also vastly improved with actual holographic sights as part of their models.
  • Lastly, the aeromedical evacuation variants (i.e. Mi-17-IVA) were also granted access to defensive flare countermeasures. Prior to the update, they were completely helpless against surface-to-air missiles and could only rely on their avionics to alert their pilots to incoming threats.
• Rusted wreckages of Mi-8s can be seen scattered in some areas of ArmA 3's Livonia terrain, though the helicopter itself does not return as a pilotable vehicle (they can still be placed via the editor or Curator module).

---

Gallery

Enhanced Mi-8MTV-3 model used by the Russian military.

Ditto.

Czech Mi-171Sh variant.

CDF-operated Mi-17s.

Civilian air taxi Mi-17.

ARMA Reforger

WIP: This page is currently a Work-In-Progress. Information contained in this article is either incomplete or missing and is subject to review.

Mi-8MT
Faction	Soviet Union
Type	Transport Helicopter
Seats	17 seats: 1× Pilot 1× Co-Pilot 15× Passengers
Item capacity	Weight: 1,000 kg Volume: 250,000 cm3
Top speed	TBA
Fuel capacity	745 L
Fuel type	Kerosene
Primary armament	None
Secondary armament	None
Variants	None
Games

The Mi-8MT is used exclusively by Soviet military forces in ARMA Reforger.

Overview

• Role:
  • Troop transport

Design

This section is a stub. You can help Armed Assault Wiki by expanding it.

Returning once more in Reforger, the Mi-8MT serves as the primary transport helicopter of the Soviet military.

Features
Compared to all of its prior iterations (even its Cold War Assault predecessor), Reforger's Mi-8MT lacks an armed sub-variant and can no longer serve in the light gunship role. It now exclusively functions as a transport helicopter, being capable of ferrying up to fifteen passengers at a time.

Crew Capacity
Mi-8MTs only require a crew of two consisting of the pilot and a co-pilot. A maximum of fourteen passengers may be seated in the rear compartment. The fifteenth passenger is seated inside the flight cabin right in front of the door between the pilot and co-pilot's seats.

---

Protection

The internal HP value of the MI-8MT is 24745.9, it takes 4x more damage when shooting at it from the rear.

Explosive damage has a 67% reduction when shooting the MI-8MT, and 100% damage when using incendiary rounds.

---

Mobility

The Fuel usage on the MI-8MT is 20L/hour at full RPM, and 0.5L/hour at idle RPM.

---

Avionics

The Info Displays in the cockpit are as follows:

• Air Speed
• Altitude
• Altitude Above Ground Level
• Climb Rate
• Fuel Level
• Fuel Damage Sensor (HUD)
• Hull Damage Sensor (HUD)
• Engine Damage Sensor (HUD)
• Gearbox Damage Sensor (HUD)
• Rotor Damage Sensor (HUD)
• Tail Rotor Damage Sensor (HUD)
• Landing Lights Indicator
• Parking Break Indicator
• Auto Hover Indicator

---

Trivia

• Mi-8MTs were not originally featured at launch and were only added after the release of Update 1.0.
• The Mi-8MT currently remains unarmed as of Update 1.0. However, a rocket pod-armed Mi-8MT is intended to be included sometime later in the Final Strike development milestone.

---

Gallery

Cockpit view.

External links

• Wikipedia: Mil Mi-8
• Wikipedia: Mil Mi-17

See also

Aircraft of comparable role and configuration

• UH-60 (U.S. counterpart, ArmA: CWA only)
• MH-60S (USMC counterpart, ArmA 2 only)
• UH-60M Black Hawk (U.S. Army counterpart, ArmA 2: OA only)
• UH-1H (U.S./Alternate Takistani Army counterpart)
• PO-30 Orca (CSAT successor, ArmA 3 only)

Soviet Union - Vehicles (ArmA: Cold War Assault)
Wheeled	BRDM • SCUD* • UAZ • Ural
Tracked	BMP-1 • BMP-2 • Shilka • T-72 • T-80
Rotor-wing	Ka-50 • Mi-17 • Mi-24
Fixed-wing	Sopwith F.1 Camel v2 • Su-25
Aquatic	Boat
* not actually usable outside of cutscenes.

SLA - Vehicles (ArmA: Armed Assault)
Wheeled	BRDM-2 • TT650G • UAZ* • Ural*
Tracked	BMP-2 • Shilka • T-72
Rotor-wing	KA-50 • Mi17
Fixed-wing	Camel • Su-34
Aquatic	PBX Boat
(Parenthesis) denote variants. * denotes vehicles also used by the Resistance sub-faction.

CDF - Vehicles (ArmA 2)
Wheeled	BRDM-2 • BM-21 Grad • Motorcycle • UAZ-469 • Ural
Tracked	BMP-2 • T-72 • ZSU-23-4
Rotor-wing	Mi-17 (Mi-17-IVA) • Mi-24D
Fixed-wing	Pchela-1T • Su-25
(Parenthesis) denote variants.

ACR - Vehicles (ArmA 2)
Wheeled	ATV • BRDM-2 • Dingo 2 CZ • HMMWV GPK • Military Offroad • Pandur II 8x8 CZ • RM-70 • T810 • UAZ-469
Tracked	BMP-2 • T-72M4 CZ
Rotor-wing	Mi-171Sh • Mi-24V
Fixed-wing	L-159 ALCA • L-39C • L-39ZA
Aquatic	PBX
(Parenthesis) denote variants. Operation Arrowhead | Army of the Czech Republic

ChDKZ - Vehicles (ArmA 2)
Wheeled	BM-21 Grad • BRDM-2 • Motorcycle • Offroad • Pickup • UAZ-469 • Ural
Tracked	BMP-2 • T-72 • ZSU-23-4
Rotor-wing	Mi-8MT
Fixed-wing	Su-25
(Parenthesis) denote variants.

United Nations - Vehicles (ArmA 2)
Wheeled	SUV • UAZ-469 • Ural
Tracked	BMP-2 • M113
Rotor-wing	Mi-8
(Parenthesis) denote variants. Operation Arrowhead

Vehicles of ARMA Reforger
Wheeled	BRDM 2 • BTR-70 • LAV-25 • M151A2 • M1025 • M923A1 • S1203 • S105 • UAZ-452A • UAZ-469 • Ural-4320
Rotor-wing	Mi-8MT • UH-1H
Italics denote vehicles confirmed to become available in future updates.

Soviet Union - Vehicles (ARMA Reforger)
Wheeled	BTR-70 • UAZ-452A • UAZ-469 • Ural-4320
Rotor-wing	Mi-8MT