Army aviation is a mobile, high-tech component that supports ground forces, delivers strikes, conducts reconnaissance, and performs evacuation missions under the most challenging conditions.
- Army aviation is both an independent branch and an integral part of the combat system of the Ground Forces of Ukraine.
- Its main assets are attack, assault-transport, and transport helicopters capable of operating in any modern combat environment.
- Aviation units work directly in the interests of ground forces, providing support day and night, conducting reconnaissance, and delivering high-precision strikes.
- Key tasks include engaging enemy personnel and equipment, supporting offensive operations, covering defensive lines, countering enemy helicopters, inserting tactical assault forces, and delivering troops and equipment to designated areas.
- Army aviation also evacuates wounded personnel, transports supplies, maintains communications, and performs engineering, meteorological, and radiological-chemical reconnaissance.
- The versatility of rotary-wing platforms allows a single unit to perform a wide range of missions: for example, Mi-8 helicopters can be used for assault support, transport, reconnaissance, and search-and-rescue operations.
- The history of the Russo-Ukrainian war confirms the key role of army aviation: from airborne assault operations near Savur-Mohyla and Donetsk airport to large-scale troop movements in Kramatorsk during the ATO/JFO.
- During the full-scale war, helicopter crews carried out extremely risky flights into besieged Mariupol to “Azovstal” and supported the liberation of Snake Island, striking enemy forces, evacuating wounded, and covering landing groups.
- Army aviation personnel have extensive international experience: from 2004 to 2022, Ukrainian helicopter detachments carried out United Nations missions in Liberia, Côte d’Ivoire, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, performing humanitarian and combat tasks.
- In these missions, Ukrainian crews flew hundreds of sorties, evacuated thousands of people, and transported hundreds of tons of cargo, confirming their professionalism and earning international trust.
- In the full-scale war, army aviation has become one of the most mobile and ready-to-act components of the Armed Forces: it operates at extremely low altitudes, covers infantry, destroys armored vehicles, locates enemy positions, and saves the wounded.
- Army aviation of the Ground Forces of Ukraine are the “guardian angels” of ground troops, able to reach the most difficult areas and change the course of battle.