Russian Helicopters To Upgrade Cuba Center To Offer Chopper Maintenance in Latin American, Caribbean

Russian Helicopters plans to upgrade its maintenance center in Cuba to provide aftersales service to Soviet-era and current Russian military and commercial helicopters in Latin American and the Caribbean.

After sales service provision for helicopters operated in Latin America and the Caribbean will draw on the production capacity at the Yu. A. Gagarin Aircraft Repair Plant (Cuba), the company said in a statement Tuesday.

"Russian Helicopters are in talks with their Cuban counterparts on formulating a proposal for retooling the plant and authorising it as an entity that is empowered to carry out after sales service and maintenance on Soviet-made and Russian-made military and commercial helicopters," a company statement said yesterday.

All helicopter modernisation work will be carried out together with and under the control of design bureaux, helicopter specialists, and aircraft repair plants that form part of Russian Helicopters. Alongside this modernisation, the customers are offered services to expand helicopters’ capacity and extend their service lives.

Military-transport helicopters will be offered integrated digital avionics, new engines, modernised rotor system and gears, electro-optical protection systems against SAMs and MANPADS, and other recent developments, the company said.