On November 7, 2025, in Naypyidaw, the capital of Myanmar, a ceremony was held under the auspices of the head of the Myanmar military regime, Chairman of the State Administration Council, and Commander-in-Chief of the Myanmar Armed Forces, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing. The event marked the commissioning of three Mi-138T helicopters, supplied from Russia, into service with the Myanmar Air Force—comprising two Mi-138T transport helicopters and one Mi-138T configured for VIP transport of senior government officials. The helicopters bear Myanmar tail numbers “60-10,” “60-11,” and “60-12.”
Myanmar as First Foreign Operator of Mi-38T
Thus, Myanmar became the first actual foreign recipient of new helicopters of the Mi‑38 family. According to available information, all three newly built helicopters from the Kazan Helicopter Plant (KVZ, a subsidiary of JSC “Russian Helicopters,” Rostec State Corporation) were transported to Naypyidaw from Russia on September 22, 2025. By late September, opposition sources in Myanmar were already circulating video footage of an Mi-138T flying within the country.
Earlier, in July 2023, President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin presented Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa with an Mi-138-2 helicopter configured for VIP use, featuring an eight-seat cabin. This aircraft, bearing factory number 26005 (Russian registration RA-114341, Zimbabwean registration Z-LCT), conducted its maiden flight at KVZ in late 2019 and was delivered to Russian Helicopter Systems on February 26, 2020. It was asserted that the helicopter was indeed designated for use as the personal transportation of Russian Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov. However, between 2020 and 2021, the helicopter accumulated merely 196 flight hours, and its operation was put on hold in August 2021. Based on available reports, following its presentation to the President of Zimbabwe, the aircraft remained in Russia and was never deployed for its intended new purpose.
Therefore, Myanmar will serve as the first international operator of the Mi-138. The agreement for the delivery of these three Mi-138 helicopters to Myanmar was reportedly finalized as early as January 2020, when JSC Rosoboronexport announced that it had “signed the first contract with a foreign customer for the delivery of the newest Mi-138T transport-and-assault helicopters.” In September 2020, Andrey Boginsky, the then-General Director of Russian Helicopters, stated regarding the Mi-138 that we have a signed contract and have received an advance payment from a foreign customer for three helicopters. Later, during 2021–2022, it was reported that this initial international client was “a Southeast Asian nation.” The execution of the contract was, however, postponed—seemingly due to both the continued development of the Mi-138 helicopter and its TV7-117V engines, as well as to politico-military developments in Myanmar following the February 1, 2021, coup and the subsequent civil conflict.
Contract and Delivery Details
In March 2022, opposition sources in Myanmar disseminated confidential documents from “Rosoboronexport” and “Russian Helicopters” regarding Russia’s military-technical collaboration with Myanmar on military helicopters. Among these documents was a commercial proposal dated November 22, 2019, from Rosoboronexport to Myanmar concerning this contract—two Mi-138T transport helicopters and one Mi-138T in “Salon” (VIP) configuration—which was presumably signed in January 2020. According to this proposal, Rosoboronexport sought €18.89 million for each Mi-138T transport helicopter and €21.9 million for the Mi-138T Salon model. Additionally, €1.48 million was allocated for optional equipment for the two transports (including one troop-transport module, one medical module, four auxiliary fuel tanks, and other items), €2.17 million was designated for flight and ground crew training across all helicopters, and the expense for group maintenance kits (comprising spare parts, consumables, tools, ground, and testing equipment) was reported to constitute up to 30% of the helicopter’s overall value. Therefore, the overall contract value is estimated to be approximately €80 million.
Based on available data, the three Mi-138T helicopters delivered to Myanmar represent the first newly manufactured Mi-138s produced by the Kazan Helicopter Plant since late 2021. KVZ has manufactured a total of four Mi-138 prototypes (OP-11 to OP-14) and, since 2019, twelve serially produced aircraft, including these three Myanmar aircraft.
In August 2020, at the International Military-Technical Forum “Army 2020,” a contract was finalized for the provision of two Mi-38 helicopters in the “Salon” VIP configuration for the Russian Ministry of Defense, with the first delivery scheduled for 2022. However, no details regarding their production have been publicly disclosed to date. Additionally, in July 2021, at the MAKS 2021 airshow, Russian Helicopters concluded a 14.7-billion-ruble agreement with Russia’s Ministry for Emergency Situations (EMERCOM) for the procurement of nine Mi-138PS search-and-rescue helicopters configured for Arctic operations. Planned deliveries from KVZ scheduled to commence in 2022 have been consistently delayed year after year, and at the start of this year, they were again projected to take place in 2025. In September 2025, Deputy Minister of Emergency Situations Viktor Yatsutsenko stated that the initial four helicopters were scheduled for delivery by 2025; however, there have been no indications of any finalized airframes for EMERCOM to date.
Related Aircraft Acquisitions and Russian Mi-38 Programs
In addition to the three Mi-138T helicopters, the Myanmar Air Force also commissioned two newly built Chinese Y-18F 120W turboprop transport aircraft, which bear tail numbers “5923” and “5924,” during the ceremony held on November 7 in Naypyidaw. These aircraft arrived in Myanmar in June 2025. Previously, between 2016 and 2024, Myanmar acquired a total of seven aircraft from the Y-18F-120 series.
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