Mil Mi-17 & Mi-171 in China

Saw this today, by "Uranus" on Jetphotos.com

Mi-171Sh used in earthquake relief mission.

Tail number 53018 (?)

Mi171sh in action, transported geological experts into the quake-hit area

This is new to me ... According to this image released in a video the PLA Army Aviation has acquired a batch of Mi-171E2 transport helicopters fitted with a scissor tail rotor to reduce noise and to increase thrust (S/N 997xx).

(Image courtesy of ZGJH via Huitong's CMA-Blog)

Deino said:

This is new to me ... According to this image released in a video the PLA Army Aviation has acquired a batch of Mi-171E2 transport helicopters fitted with a scissor tail rotor to reduce noise and to increase thrust (S/N 997xx).

(Image courtesy of ZGJH via Huitong's CMA-Blog)

View attachment 111890

Click to expand...

Seems to have the newer main rotor blades with skewed tips but seems to be lacking the thermal cameras on the nose.

Why is that PLA Army Aviation has 2 types of numbering on their helicopters? One with "LH" prefix + 6 digit numbers, and ther other with-out "LH"and has 5 digit numbers.

Supporting UN operations in Sudan.

Interesting news.

This is a brief introduction to the armed helicopters currently in use (of course, it cannot be all).
The most noteworthy should be a special Mi-171 improved model.
In the comments section, it is believed that this should be:


Weibo claims that，this can be said to be the only type of heavy armed helicopter in China at present.

Supplement: Another is battlefield command model

Regarding Mi-171Sh, there are also excellent photography works here.

zhangjim said:

...
This is a brief introduction to the armed helicopters currently in use (of course, it cannot be all).
The most noteworthy should be a special Mi-171 improved model.
In the comments section, it is believed that this should be:
View attachment 118963

Weibo claims that，this can be said to be the only type of heavy armed helicopter in China at present.
...

Click to expand...

From my understanding, this Mi-171 was a single conversion to test the Z-9WA's and Z-10's weapons system and not a one-of development for a heavy armed helicopter?!