LANGKAWI: Russian Helicopters Holding Company, part of Rostec State Corporation, has garnered interest from Malaysian customers to purchase eight helicopters.
Its sales director Artem Fetisov said the helicopters that Malaysian operators intended to buy were of three types – Ansat, Mi-8/17 and Ka-32A11DC.
However, Fetisov declined to divulge the details of each type that piqued Malaysian operators’ interest.
“We are not ready to disclose them because we are still negotiating,” he told Bernama on the sidelines of the Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace 2019 (LIMA’19) exhibition here today.
Fetisov said the inquiries from Malaysian operators were partly a result of their South Asian Heli Tour last November.
He said two new helicopters, one Mi-171A2 and one Ansat, toured over 5,000 km and held demonstration shows in China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Malaysia.
“The Asian market is very crucial to us and we managed to attract a lot of potential customers during the tour,” he added.
Ansat is a light, twin-engine utility helicopter that can be quickly transformed into either a cargo or passenger helicopter with the capacity of up to seven people.
The Mi-8/17 is among the well-known and commercially popular helicopters in the world and is designed for a wide range of uses such as patrolling, coastal guard service, and search and rescue operations.
The Ka-32A11BC is designed with several critical stabilisation and manoveurability improvements, especially for fire extinguishing missions.
LIMA’19 which kicked off here on Tuesday ends on March 30. The venues are the Mahsuri International Exhibition Centre and Resort World Langkawi (RWL).
A total of 406 companies (206 local and 200 foreign), mostly defence-related, are taking part in LIMA’19. – Bernama
