Army Aviation Command of the Iraq Armed Forces took delivery of two Mil Mi-171E helicopters at the in Al-Taji air base on 16 January and added two more on 23 January.

Al-Taji, also known as the Camp Cooke with the Iraqi occupation forces, is located 20 miles north of Baghdad. The helicopters are configured for transport missions. With this four machines having been delivered, the grand total of the Mi-171E helicopters in inventory of Iraq’s Army Aviation Command came to fourteen.

In September 2006 the US Congress was notified by DSCA, a special structure in the system of the US ministry of defense, that Iraq ordered from the US another package of military equipment worth US dollar 500 million. Among other things, this order called for twenty Russian-made helicopters of the Mi-171E type.

As it became known in March 2009, the US company called Aeronautical Radio Incorporated won a contract that calls for arranging purchase of twenty two Russian Mi-17 series helicopters in their country of origin and handing over these helicopters to the Iraqi military. The contract value was said to be US dollar 80 million. Every single helicopter and the cost of its customization would come to US dollar 2.4 million. Iraq was to get hold of these machines in 2010.

Today, various structures of the Iraqi government structures to do with order enforcement operate a fleet of 30 Russian helicopters of the Mi-17 and Mi-171E series. In November 2010 Iraq got hold of the last two out of eight Mi-171E on order. The money paid for these machines was estimated at US dollar 158 million. Russian companies and agencies were in charge of these deliveries while the US provided funding. Before going into Iraqi hands, the Russian helicopters were equipped with additional items at a base in the United Arab Emirates.