Mil Mi-22 (1975)

The Mil Mi-22 is a large airborne command post helicopter developed from the Mi-6 for the Soviet Army in the mid 1970s. Earlier Mi-6 conversions such as the Mi-6VKP had to land before their command equipment could work, so Mil developed the Mi-6AYa, also called the Mi-6VzPU, built around a miniaturised solid-state communications suite named Yakhont. This version was ordered into series production at Rostov as the Mi-22 and entered service in 1975. It looks much like an Mi-6 transport apart from a large aerial on the tail boom, and command aircraft were often given a red stripe so troops could pick them out. The Mi-22 served with the Soviet and then the Russian Air Force until the early 2000s.