India's Hindustan Aeronautics LImited (HAL) today signed a contract with the Argentinian Air Force (AAF) to supply spares and repair legacy helicopters of 2 tonne class.
The contract was signed by Brigadier General Xavier Issac, Chief of AAF and C.B. Ananthakrishnan, CMD, HAL at the Aero India 2023 event today, HAL announced in a tweet. The helicopter under question was not identified.
However, the AAF has some 12 units of the French A 315B Lama choppers. The same helicopters are licence-manufactured in India under the name of "Cheetah" which could be termed as "legacy helicopters of the 2 tonne class."
Some of these Lama helicopters have been grounded since 2000 for want of spares and stoppage of support by the French OEM, Aerospatiale which no longer exists as a company.
Given HAL's extensive experience with maintenance of Cheetah helicopters, the agreement could help the AAF to keep its fleet of Lama helicopters in service for some time to come.