True, but I can easily see that the same role - short range airstrikes - could be played by drone teams in the future. They also have the capability to observe

True, but I can easily see that the same role - short range airstrikes - could be played by drone teams in the future. They also have the capability to observe and strike targets over the treelines. And in top of that, they are cheaper, easier to scale and maintain, and do not require vulnerable airfields to operate. Of course Russians will use their helis, they already built them, but nobody will probably seriously think about developing and building new helis in the future.