Russian Helicopters Plans Joint-Manufacturing Center In UAE

Russian Helicopters is likely to commence talks with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on the possibility of joint manufacturing of Helicopters in the Gulf Arab state.

The company’s director general Alexander Mikheev was quoted by Sputnik News as saying, “We are holding talks and see that here we can make several major, interesting investment programs together with the local partners, which are ready to open their market for our joint helicopter projects in the future.”

Mikheev did not specify the type of helicopters or the potential partner in the UAE. He was speaking at the on-going Dubai Air show.

There has been a major upsurge of interest in Russian military hardware, particularly helicopters in the Middle East and Asia in recent times. The use of the Mi-17 range of helicopters in Afghanistan, orders by Pakistan, interest shown by Egypt and most significant of all, use of the helicopters in the anti-Ismamic State operations in Syria.

The UAE is trying to diversify from a net buyer of arms into a manufacturer with technology from foreign firms while Russia is seeking long term partnerships similar to what it has with India in joint manufacture.

Russian Helicopters display at the Dubai Air Show includes the medium multirole Mi-171A2 alongside the light multirole Ansat in VIP configuration and the firefighting version of the Ka-32A11BC.