Russian Helicopters company holding opens center in South Africa to service its helicopters

Russian Helicopters holding and Denel Aviation company have opened a maintenance center to fully service all helicopters produced by the Russian holding, an Interfax correspondent reported from the opening ceremony on March 26.

"This is the implementation of another stage of our strategy - service support, which is not advanced enough in Russian aircraft producers," Deputy General Director of Russian Helicopters Andrei Shibitov said.

Shibitov said that currently around 600 helicopters produced in Russia and the Soviet Union were being used in Africa. Russian Helicopters plan to establish a major regional center based on Denel Aviation, which will provide post-sale and maintenance service as well as major repair of all Russian helicopters in the region, Shibitov said.

For instance, complete maintenance of helicopters and modernization of Russian aircraft could be possible in the future, Shibitov said. Russian Helicopters and Denel Aviation could establish a joint venture, he said.

Russian Helicopters is the largest Russian company producing military and civilian helicopters. The company is a 100 percent subsidiary of Oboronprom corporation belonging to Rostech (previously Russian Technologies).

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