In 1964,[1][2] motivated by a perception that the Soviet military was losing interest in helicopters,[3] Mil began work on improvements to the Mi-2 design, and built mockups exploring two different paths.[1][2][3] One of these led to the development of the Mil Mi-3.[1][2][3] The other, designated V-20 (Cyrillic В-20), was to have a fuselage stretched by inserting a plug, and equipped with a wide, sliding door.[1][2][3] The Mi-2's three-bladed main rotor and wheeled undercarriage were to be replaced by a four-bladed rotor and skid undercarriage.[1][2][3] Calculations showed that the Mi-2's Klimov GTD-350 engines would be insufficient for the new design, and Mil started to study a range of other gas turbines for the V-20's powerplant, including the GTD-550, GTD-10, and Glushenkov GTD-3, plus also the American Continental T65 and French Turbomeca Astazou.[1][2][3] Rather than being an improvement of the Mi-2, the V-20 had become a practically new design.[4]
Mil founder Mikhail Leontyevich Mil and designer Marat Nikolayevich Tishchenko unsuccessfully attempted to secure support from the Soviet Ministry of Aviation Industry to develop the design,[2] but in 1965,[4] the Soviet military became interested in the GTD-10 powered version of the V-20 as a helicopter capable of deploying a motorised rifle squad.[1][2][3] The designation Mi-22 was applied at this point.[1]
Development proceeded as far as testing the new four-bladed rotor fitted to a Mi-2 in 1971,[2] but a complete prototype had not yet been built before the Mi-24 was selected to fulfil the same requirement in the early 1970s.[1][2] In actual service, the Mi-24 was hardly ever deployed as a troop carrier, negating the purpose for which the Mi-22 had been developed.[3]