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Kazakh Air Force to Buy 20 Russian Helicopters
Kazakhstan will buy 20 Mi-17 transport and combat helicopters from Russia in 2004-2006 to help protect it from militant attacks and drug trafficking, the Kazakh government source, quoted by Reuters, said on Tuesday, September 7. Kazakhstan, a vast Central Asian nation of 15 million people, is a close economic and political partner of Russia.
Earlier this year the Kazakh government angered Moscow by holding talks with Western firms eager to win the helicopter contract, valued at up to $1 billion. But today Kazakh Prime Minister Danial Akhmetov met with a senior manager of Russia’s Kazan Helicopters, which builds the Mi-17 helicopter, to discuss the conditions of the contract. The value of the contract has not been disclosed.
Akhmetov said the first four Mi-17 helicopters would be delivered to the Kazakh army and security services by the end of this year and the remaining 16 in the next two years.
The Mi-17 is a modernised replica of the Mi-8 workhorse, in service since the 1960s and, according to its manufacturer, the most widely produced helicopter in the world.
Kazakhstan, five times the size of France, lies on a major heroin smuggling route from Afghanistan to Russia and the European Union. Islamic militants have already attacked its neighbors Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.
Source
Kazakhstan will buy 20 Mi-17 transport and combat helicopters from Russia in 2004-2006 to help protect it from militant attacks and drug trafficking, the Kazakh government source, quoted by Reuters, said on Tuesday, September 7. Kazakhstan, a vast Central Asian nation of 15 million people, is a close economic and political partner of Russia.
Earlier this year the Kazakh government angered Moscow by holding talks with Western firms eager to win the helicopter contract, valued at up to $1 billion. But today Kazakh Prime Minister Danial Akhmetov met with a senior manager of Russia’s Kazan Helicopters, which builds the Mi-17 helicopter, to discuss the conditions of the contract. The value of the contract has not been disclosed.
Akhmetov said the first four Mi-17 helicopters would be delivered to the Kazakh army and security services by the end of this year and the remaining 16 in the next two years.
The Mi-17 is a modernised replica of the Mi-8 workhorse, in service since the 1960s and, according to its manufacturer, the most widely produced helicopter in the world.
Kazakhstan, five times the size of France, lies on a major heroin smuggling route from Afghanistan to Russia and the European Union. Islamic militants have already attacked its neighbors Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.
Source