Mil Mi-24

"A Hind D...?"

- Solid Snake

"Who else could shoot down two F-16s with a Hind?"

- Revolver Ocelot to Solid Snake, referring to Liquid Snake's feat

Hinds are Russian attack and transport choppers. It was used by Colonel Volgin's GRU soldiers during Operation Snake Eater, in Gene's rebellion during the San Hieronymo Takeover, in Big Boss's mercenaries in Outer Heaven and Zanzibar Land, and then by Liquid Snake during the FOXHOUND Rebellion.

Background
The Mil-series of helicopters stem from the design bureau of Mikhail Mil. Nearly all Soviet-era helicopters are from the Mil design bureau, save for the Kamov helicopters. The Mi-24 was the first purpose-built helicopter gunship in the Soviet military forces. Unlike the slimmer US-made AH-1 Cobra, the Mi-24 was not designed solely as an antitank helicopter; the Hind was larger due to a 6-to-8 man troop compartment in the main body, as it was meant both as troop transport and attack helicopter. The Hind has four main wing hardpoints along with two on the wingtips; a typical load consists of four large unguided rocket pods and a pair of wingtip double launch rails, each with two guided anti-tank missiles.

The Mi-24D, or Hind D, has a new cockpit design. The early Mi-24s (Hind A to Hind C) had a squat, polygonal side-by-side cockpit, but the Hind D was probably influenced by the 'tandem' in-line configuration of US attack helicopters. The Mi-24D has two cockpit 'bubbles', with the pilot in the upper bubble and the gunner in the lower one, separate from each other. This also gives the Hind D access to either a 12.7mm or 23mm rotary cannon, mounted under the chin of the Gunner's bubble. All existing Hind A, B, and C designs have since been upgraded to the D or the later Mi-24V Hind E design.

All Hind helicopters pack armored cockpits for pilot and gunner, capable of absorbing anything up to 20mm cannon hits and thus offering protection from all but the heaviest anti-aircraft weapons.

Prototype Hind-A helicopters, identified by their greenhouse style canopy tops, were used by Colonel Volgin to transport the Shagohod from Nikolai Stephanovich Sokolov's design bureau to his massive fortress, Groznyj Grad. Hind A's were also used to patrol the mountaintops, in addition to being used to transport GRU troops.

During the Virtuous Mission, after The Boss defected and launched Naked Snake over Dolinovodno Bridge, she, along with the Cobra Unit, Ocelot, and Volgin, were transported back to Groznyj Grad via Hind A. Later, during Operation Snake Eater, Naked Snake encountered a parked Hind A at Bolshaya Past Base, then again later encountered the helicopter while in the mountains after defeating The End. A Hind A was also used to transport reinforcements to Groznyj Grad when Snake and EVA were escaping on motorbike, but was subsequently destroyed by Volgin's Shagohod.

San Hieronymo Takeover
Main Article

Hind-A helicopters were witnessed during the San Hieronymo Takeover. The first appearance of a Hind A was while Big Boss and some of his newly recruited resistance soldiers were searching the Hospital for Malaria drugs and stumbled upon a shipping list for a Research Lab. Gene, Cunningham, and Ursula had noticed that Big Boss and Roy Campbell had escaped from the prison and were looking for them in a Hind-A helicopter, as well as radioing some of their personnel to search for them, including someone by the name of Python. A squadron of at least three Hind-As were then witnessed arriving at the plant right when Snake's resistance group was about to place TNT charges on Metal Gear RAXA. Three more were witnessed carrying away the real Metal Gear from the plant, and Gene, after having both his own men and Snake's men commit essentially mass-riot suicide, had left in another Hind-A helicopter. It's also implied in Cunningham's mission and FOX unit's mission by The Pentagon that Hind-As were also involved in the theft of Metal Gear.

Peace Walker
Hind A/B/C and Hind D helicopters are both involved in the invasion of Costa Rica.

During Operation Intrude N313, Solid Snake was attacked by a massive Hind D helicopter shortly before parachuting from the rooftop onto the courtyard. The Hind had yet to take off, though, and had next to no movement besides the gunner's machine gun. Snake was able to easily destroy the Hind by using a grenade launcher to fire grenades into the cockpit of the Hind.

Early into his infiltration of Zanzibar Land, Solid Snake encountered yet another Hind D, which this time was much more fearsome than its predecessor. The Hind was able to take off before being engaged by Snake, so it had full access to its missiles and artillery. However, Snake was able to ground the chopper using several Stinger missiles. It is to be noted that the Hind D helicopters in Zanzibar Land were actually modified versions of the Hind D Russian Gunships with many flaws corrected (such as the most fatal of flaws, which is "manipulating against the rotor from the surface") so as to increase ability and firepower. Also, the Hind D ZL Gunships are invulnerable to small firearms, thus using small firearms to shoot it down won't work. Also, boat shaped hulls for balance for the wings, tail, and both sides of the cockpit are able to be equipped if the ZL Hind D is undergoing an amphibious operation.

Specifications:

Equipment:
 * Periscope Sensor equipped to mast height (This allows the use of periscope attacks in dense environments such as jungles.
 * Boat-shaped hull for Amphibious ops.

Weaponry: Note: The aircraft can switch between Anti-Air and Anti-Missiles at any given time given the situation.
 * 57mm missile pod
 * 132 rounds At-2 Swatter Anti-tank Missiles
 * 132 rounds At-6 Spiral Anti-tank Missiles
 * 132 rounds Stinger Anti-Aircraft Missiles
 * 132 rounds Sagar Anti-Tank Missiles
 * Four-barreled electric Gatling Gun

Once again, while infiltrating Shadow Moses Island during the FOXHOUND Rebellion of 2005, Solid Snake did battle against another Hind D, this time piloted by his own brother, Liquid Snake and a Genome Soldier which was given to Liquid as a down payment by Sergei Gurlukovich in exchange for Metal Gear REX data. Earlier, Liquid Snake had used the Hind D helicopter to shoot down two F-16s. Later, Liquid Snake demonstrates his prowess with maneuvering in often surprising positions and gunning of the Hind D as a fearsome combat machine in battling Solid Snake. As usual, Snake was able to destroy the Hind D with Stinger Missiles and seemingly kill Liquid in the process, yet later, upon discovering a parachute hanging from a nearby tree, it was evident that Liquid was still alive; a Codec commentary has Snake noting Liquid couldn't possibly have bailed out, and must have placed the parachute after the crash just to show he was still alive.

Trivia

 * The Hind As in Metal Gear Solid 3 used to transport the Shagohod were originally supposed to be Russian Kamovs, but the modeling team didn't want to model an all-new helicopter model for the 15 seconds they were shown, so they used the Hind A model instead.
 * In Metal Gear Solid 4 when fighting against Crying Wolf, on the same area at the back you can see the crashed Hind used by Liquid.
 * Liquid is apparently such a good pilot he can fly a Hind from the weapons operator's seat. The pilot's seat is the rear cockpit; while there are dual flying controls, this means the Genome Soldier with him isn't actually doing anything. Presumably, this was done so that Liquid was more visible in frontal shots of the helicopter.
 * The Hind D in Metal Gear 2 shares the same boss theme as Metal Gear D.
 * The Stinger Missiles that Snake stole were originally going to be outfitted onto the Hind Ds.