Due to high demand for attack helicopters in Afghanistan, the Soviet military was short of Mil Mi-24 helicopter gunships for most of the 1980s. When Moscow finally agreed to supply a batch of these to South Yemen, it had to use 16 second-hand Mi-24As: several of those delivered to Aden in 1985 and 1986 wore clear signs of repairs after suffering various degrees of combat damage in Afghanistan. All were painted in the ‘sand and spinach’ camouflage pattern, consisting of beige and olive green, illustrated here. While national markings shown on this illustration are confirmed, none of their serials are known. In South Yemen, Mi-24As were operated by an unknown (‘Attack’) Helicopter Regiment: most were destroyed during the coup of 1986, relatively soon after their delivery, and only a handful remained in service to see some combat during the Civil War of 1994. (Artwork by Tom Cooper)