The Mil Mi-28 'Havoc' was one of two designs competing to become the USSR's first dedicated attack helicopter, a successor to the Mi-24. The Mi-28 was clearly inspired by the design of similar US models like the AH-1 and AH-64 and as such features a slender and smaller fuselage for reduced vulnerarabilty. Besides that, the Havoc has a tandem stepped two-seat cockpit with energy absorbing seats, an undernose gun turret, and a heavilty armored fuselage composed of steel and titanium which makes it nearly invulnerable to small-arms fire. Avionics in recent units include a mast-mounted milimeter-wave radar, FLIR, and night-vision lighting while weapons are a mix of rockets, anti-tank and anti-air missiles. Although the Mi-28 initially lost out to the Ka-50, it has since regained favor with the Russian military and is scheduled to enter service alongside its rival.

The Mi-28A prototyle was first flown as early as 10 November 1982 but lost out to the Ka-50 in 1992 just as severe budget cuts began taking a toll on new weapons acquisitions and after a license-production deal with Iraq had been suspended due to the Gulf War. As a result, the Mi-28A never entered production although most of its initial deficiencies versus the Ka-50 (mostly due to its daytime-only capability) were eventually solved with the all-weather Mi-28N. This variant added most of the avionics mentioned above (notably the radar similar to the US Longbow) and is, overall, a significant improvement over its predecessor and over the Ka-50. A daytime version with reduced avionics is known as the Mi-28D.