A delegation from the Russian Ministry of Defence headed by Sergey Shoigu visited the Kazan Helicopters, part of Rostec Corporation, during their visit to Tatarstan. The Russian Defence Minister was shown an upgraded version of the Mi-8MTV-5-1 helicopter in service with the Russian Army. The upgraded rotorcraft, the Mi-8MTV-5M, meets the present-day requirements of the Army aviation.
Sergey Shoigu visited the aggregate assembly shop, the paint shop, and the main assembly shop. Managing Director of the Kazan Helicopters Aleksey Belykh reported to the Defence Minister on the completion of development work to improve the helicopter. The design documentation has been approved for serial production.
Import substitution work has been completed on the Mi-8MTV-5M helicopter, additional equipment has been installed to extend its functionality, and avionics equipment has been replaced with newest ones: a multifunctional display, digital autopilot, a latest communications suite, and a home-made TA-14 auxiliary power unit have been installed.
The Mi-8MTB-5M is capable of performing night group flights using night vision goggles, and its navigation and weather control systems are integrated into a single information field. The state-of-the-art communications suite is unified with all helicopters supplied to the Russian Ministry of Defence and provides data exchange functions between helicopters.