Russian Helicopters hopes for the better

The Russian Helicopters holding company, a subsidiary of Rostec Corporation, predicts a slight drop in deliveries this year. "The 2015 production program calls for the manufacture of 244 helicopters," General Manager Alexander Mikheyev told a news briefing at HeliRussia 2015 on 21 May. "The combined orderbook of the holding and our production plants stands at 585 airframes worth 490 billion rubles [$9.8 billion at the current exchange rate]. These are firm contracts for which we have received advance payments." According to Mikheyev, 67% of all contracts by value are in the segment of military technical cooperation. "All deliveries will be on schedule," he said. Russian Helicopters expects to boost performance in the near future, Mikheyev noted: "We are bringing five civilian types [to the maket]: the [Kamov] Ka-62, the [Kazan Helicopters] Ansat, the Ka-226T, and also the [Mil] Mi-171A2 and Mi-26T2." The company expects India to officially announce the project to organize local production of Ka-226T helicopters.