Rosoboronexport to provide another 42 helicopters to Afghanistan under deal with Pentagon
MOSCOW. Aug 9 (Interfax-AVN) - Russian state-run arms trader Rosoboronexport will deliver another 42 Mil Mi-17V-5 helicopters to Afghanistan's security forces in 2013 and 2014 under contracts with the U.S. Department of Defense, Rosoboronexport general director Anatoly Isaikin told Interfax-AVN.
"After the first contract on the delivery of 21 Mi-17V-5 helicopters was signed with the Pentagon in May 2011 and was successfully implemented in 2012-2013, a series of additional contracts on the delivery of another 42 helicopters was signed between the U.S. government and Rosoboronexport," he said.
Helicopter exports under the new deals will start at the end of August 2013 and will be completed in 2014, he said.
"These contracts envision the delivery of helicopters in their military-transport modification equipped with almost two dozen Western-made advanced radio-navigation devices," Isaikin said.
"The Mi-17 contract is a very pragmatic and well-considered decision. It is the only right decision of the American defense agency, given the current situation, that vividly demonstrates our countries' ability to work together to tackle global problems setting aside prejudices of the Cold War. In fact, Russia and the U.S. do not have many such large-scale bilateral projects. And no one knows how many such projects we may have in the future. It means that we should highly value the unprecedented level of trust that was achieved by us during the implementation of the helicopter contract," he said.
The full version of Isaikin's interview will be published on the Interfax-AVN website.