Mil Mi-24 Hind

The Mil Mi-24 helicopter, NATO callsign Hind and often called Krokodil (crocodile) or Flying Tank by its Soviet crews, is a powerful multi-role helicopter of the Soviet Union. Unlike the real-life Hind, it is not only a powerful gunship, but can also carry light to medium vehicles in a special apperture on its underside, a feature possibly inspired by the Mil Mi-10 Harke, a "flying crane" design. The Hind has further passenger space for up to 8 human-sized people (or fewer of larger-than-human build). It is armed with a nose-mounted chaingun and pylon-mounted rocket pods, alternating between the two as it fires. Both weapons fire rapidly and as a consequence, the Hind goes through it's ammo supply rather quickly. Unlike the allied helicopter gunships, the Hind is unable to combat aerial targets and does not bring quite the firepower to bear that its allied counterparts can. It is however quite well-armored for an aircraft, ready to confront ground forces with limited anti-aircraft capabilities.

Stats

• Type: Vehicle
• Class: Gunship
• Prerequisite
  • Path #1: Helipad
• HP: 225
• TechLevel: 9
• Cost: 1200$
• Points: 40
• Crewed: yes
• GuardRange: 30
• Tags: Helicopter, CarryAll

Equipment

• Chaingun
• Hydra rockets (Ammo x12)

Crew

Each Hind is piloted by a pilot who will attempt to make a daring escape with his parachute if his craft is shot down and will succeed to do so at 40% (Rookie), 55% (Veteran) and 80% (Elite). Surviving pilots inherit the experience points of the downed Hind.

Abilities

Hover

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Stats

• Speed: 12
• Turn: 4

Chaingun

Notes

• Fires on full automatic, meaning it will never stop because a burst ended or because it has to reload its clip.
• Shots are slightly scattered around the target area, but are so many that the target is certain to be hit.
• When passively attacking, the Hind will move its fire in a sweeping arc across the entire area it is targeting.

Hydra rockets

Template:Main Showers the target area with multiple rockets. Requires the Rocket Pods upgrade.

Upgrade: AP Ammunition

Received upon promotion to Elite level; increases chaingun damage against armored targets by +25%.

Upgrade: Speakers

Upgrades the Hind with a set of propaganda speakers on its underside, blaring messages at forces below and around.

Effect

• The Hind gains a propaganda aura.

Strategy

The Hind is a true multi-role unit, and that in more than on paper. Its chaingun is highly effective against infantry and even light vehicles and although it suffers from accuracy issues when attacking single infantry targets, its sheer volume of fire spells instant doom for infantry formations of any size.

The Hind is surprisingly well armored (medium), and heavier than many comparable Allied designs. This allows it to withstand small arms fire and even some anti-aircraft rockets far better than most other helicopters. But, all things considered, it is still an aircraft, not an armored vehicle, and hence should be kept out of range of anti-aircraft weapons.

The Hind excels in hunting down both infantry and tanks and in rapid deployment of powerful ground forces. Overall, a highly valuable and powerful unit with the only drawback, if you can call it that, of limited utility against aircraft and anti-aircraft positions.

Notes

• The Hind will hover permanently and only descend when either taking up or deploying passengers, picking up or setting down a vehicle, or when landing on a helipad or repair pad.
• Only the use of its rockets will deplete the Hind's ammunition - it can use its' chaingun without limitation.
• The original Hind of Red Alert was a gunship armed with a chaingun (in-game) and rockets (in cutscenes and on its cameo). Red Alert 2 had a Hind designed as a transport as concept, available to Cuba only. This unit did not make it into the release version of the game, but the code and even a voxel of this unit remain in the game's files. Like the NightHawk and Kirov Airship, that Hind was designed as a JumpJet vehicle unit, built from a player's Factory, rather than their aircraft production facility. Red Alert 2: New World Order re-introduces the Hind as a combination of both designs.

See also

• Longbow Helicopter
• Comanche Helicopter
• Chinook Transport
• NightHawk Assault Helicopter

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