Crews of Mi-8MTV5-1 transport and combat helicopters assigned to the Russian military base in Kyrgyzstan practiced setting up minefields from the air using helicopter mining systems (VSM-1). This was reported in the Central Military District (CVO).
The pilots performed flights over mountainous terrain at an altitude of 25-100 m. They installed conditional minefields with a length of up to 3 thousand m.
With the help of VSM-1, the Mi-8MTV5-1 crews dropped models of anti-personnel and anti-tank mines from the air. At the same time, the helicopters moved at a speed of no more than 200 km/h in order to maintain the density of mine barriers.
VSM is produced at JSC "Kazan Helicopter Production Association". It includes a mining control panel, 4 containers for mines, a container panel, a trolley for transportation and a container lifting/suspension system.
116 cassettes with mines of the PTM-3, POM-2, PFM-1S, PDM-4 types are loaded in 4 units on the external suspensions of the helicopter. Mines are fired first from the outer, then from the inner containers. Mining takes place in flight.
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