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Mikhail Mizikayev
Rostvertol steps up Mi-35 exports
The Rostvertol joint stock
company has shipped two new Mil
Mi-35P attack helicopters to Peru this
spring (right photo). According to a
Rosoboronexport spokesperson, the
contract for two brand-new Mi-35Ps
and six Mi-171Sh multipurpose
medium troop carriers from Ulan-
Ude plant was signed in Lima on
22 July 2010. “This helicopter
contract was lightning-fast indeed”,
Rosoboronexport Director General
Anatoly Isaikin commented on the
deal at the time. “The contract was
signed only a month and a half
after the Peruvian side had made
its request”. The new helicopters
are to be used on counternarcotics
operations and in support of the
Peruvian military fighting the rebels
of the Sendero Luminoso extremist
organisation. The deliveries under
the contract are due for completion
before year-end.
Russian military aircraft appeared
in Peru as far back as the 1970s.
The Latin American country acquired
12 Mi-25 combat helicopters (the
export variant of the Mi-24D) from
the Soviet Union in 1982. Seven
machines more are said to have
been bought from Nicaragua in 1992.
According to Flight International, the
Peruvian Air Force had operated 16
aircraft of the type by late last year.
The newly acquired Mi-35Ps differ
from Peru’s Mi-25s in packing the
formidable fixed gun mount with
the 30-mm GSh-30K twin-barrel
automatic gun instead of the swivelling
12.7-mm four-barrel machinegun and
the sophisticated Shturm-V antitank
guided missile (ATGM) system
and the latest avionics as well. The
Mi-35P is in production by Rostvertol
concurrently with the modernised
www.take-off.ru
Mi-35M. The first order for Mi-35Ms
was awarded by Venezuela five years
ago. 10 helicopter of the type were
delivered from 2006 to 2008. In
October 2008, a contract was signed
for 12 machines of the type for Brazil
(photo below). The first three of
them were delivered on December
2009 and three more followed last
summer. Thus, a third Latin American
nation gets sophisticated Rostvertol
helicopters.
Mi-35P deliveries to Indonesia
resumed last year after a sevenyear
lull (left photo above). The
first two machines were shipped
in September 2003, and 2007
saw Russia and Indonesia make
an intergovernmental agreement
on a major loan to Indonesia
for acquisition of various types
of combat gear. A contract for
three Mi-35P attack helicopters
was signed as part of the
agreement. They were assembled
by Rostvertol last year and airlifted
to Jakarta by an An-124 Ruslan on
23 September 2010.
contracts and deliveries | news
The Republic of Myanmar became
another buyer of Rostvertol’s
Mi-35Ps last year (right photo
above). A deal for such machines
was part of the December 2009
package of contracts for advanced
Russian aircraft designed for
Myanmar. Rostvertol shipped the
first four Mi-35Ps to the customer in
August last year, and the remaining
four had been prepared for shipping
by February this year.
The Mi-35M and Mi-35P shall
remain an important part of
Rostvertol’s production programme
for the near future. According to
Rostvertol Director General Boris
Slyusar, the orderbook for aircraft
of the family is full until 2015. The
media report that the talks with
potential customers from a dozen
countries have resulted in contracts
for 28 Mi-35Ms and 30 Mi-35Ps.
The major of them, probably, is the
contract for 24 Mi-35Ms awarded by
Azerbaijan last autumn. Rostvertol
is poised to kick off the assembly of
these machines in the near future.
take-off june 2011
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Rostvertol
Mikhail Mizikayev
Andrey Fomin