The Mi-28 waited three decades for its first war, then found several at once. Iraq signed a US$4.2 billion agreement with Russia in October 2012 covering up to 36 Mi-28NEs, other helicopters and air-defence systems, approved it in 2013 and received its first aircraft the following year, just as Islamic State overran much of the north and west. Iraqi Mi-28NEs were in combat by the autumn of 2014.

In Syria, Russia began using both the Ka-52 and the Mi-28N in early 2016 to support the Syrian Arab Army, notably during the fighting for Palmyra, firing S-8 rockets and Ataka missiles at Islamic State positions. A prototype of the upgraded Mi-28NM was also sent to Syria to test its systems in heat and dust.

Ukraine was a different kind of war. Mi-28Ns flew from the first weeks of the full-scale invasion in 2022, and wreckage of one was found near Hostomel outside Kyiv in April that year. Shoulder-launched missiles, ground fire, strikes on airfields and, increasingly, drones took their toll. On 15 July 2026 Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces released footage of a drone destroying a Mi-28 in flight over Russia’s Belgorod region. By October 2026 Oryx had visually confirmed 21 Mi-28s destroyed or damaged, a large share of a fleet that numbered in the low hundreds.

The Mi-28 carries a 30 mm 2A42 cannon in a chin turret with about 250 rounds, the same gun used on the BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicle. Its main anti-tank weapon is the 9M120 Ataka, carried in two racks of eight for a typical load of 16, alongside 80 mm S-8 or 122 mm S-13 rocket pods on four pylons. Igla-V air-to-air missiles, gun pods and bombs can also be carried, and later versions added the Khrizantema and the long-range LMUR missile.

The main rotor has five composite blades on a head with elastomeric bearings, while the tail rotor uses a distinctive biplane layout with independently controlled X-shaped blades, which reduces noise and improves control. Two Klimov turboshafts sit in pods above the wing roots; production Mi-28Ns moved from the Ukrainian-built TV3-117VMA to the Russian VK-2500, and the Mi-28NM uses the more powerful VK-2500P with digital engine control.

• Mi-28: two prototypes from 1982 with TV3-117 engines; the first had a three-blade tail rotor, the second the definitive X-shaped tail rotor.
• Mi-28A: improved prototypes from January 1988 with downward exhaust suppressors; cancelled in 1993.
• Mi-28N Night Hunter: all-weather, day and night version with mast-mounted radar and thermal sights; rolled out 1996, production from 2004.
• Mi-28NE: export version, bought by Iraq and Algeria, and later delivered to Iran.
• Mi-28UB: combat trainer with dual controls in both cockpits.
• Mi-28NM: modernised version with redesigned nose, new radar, VK-2500P engines and new missiles; first flew in 2016.

Russian operating costs are not public. Jane’s-derived figures give a development cost for the Mi-28N of about US$150 million in 2000 and a unit price of US$15–16 million in 2002; Ugandan press reporting in 2024 put the price at about US$18 million. Running costs follow from two turboshafts of the same family that powers the Mi-24 and Mi-8, a five-blade rotor and an airframe weighing up to 11.5 tonnes. An hour of flying therefore almost certainly costs several thousand US dollars, before weapons.