Rostvertol company, forming part of Russian Helicopters holding company, has delivered six Mi-28N “Night Hunter” strike helicopters to Russian air forces, Lenta.ru reports.

The vehicles have been shipped to the customer on October 8th 2011, however it has been unveiled only in the evening of October 11th. According to the CEO of Rostvertol, Boris Slusar, the delivery of such a large batch has happened for the first time in the enterprise’s history.

The delivery of Mi-28Ns has been performed in the network of State defense order (SDO) for 2011. And a source close to the company has not reported how many Mi-28Ns have been included in SDO for 2011. In the end of February 2011, Vladimir Popovkin, former First Deputy Minister of Defense, declared that Russian armed forces should acquire about 100 helicopters this year, including Mi-28Ns and Ka-52s.

At the beginning of October mass-media have reported with reference to a source in the military-industrial complex, that Russian Ministry of Defense has decided to acquire 20 Mi-35M helicopters. These vehicles will be acquired instead of Mi-28Ns. This decision has been taken since Mi-35M is cheaper and easier to master. Deliveries of Mi-24’s export version have already been started.