Stalled & Drifting, Russia Rushes To Kickstart Ka-226T Deal
After the said meeting,Shiv Aroor | Oct 31 2017
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Confirming the development today in a statement, RusHeliCo has that its CEO Andrey Boginskiy is on his way to India to “meet India’s defense minister Nirmala Sitharaman” where they “will discuss the Ka-226T helicopter project to assemble this helicopter in India — specifically, they will negotiate when to sign a contract and what production facility to use for a JV manufacturing Ka-226T helicopters.”
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Things have remained difficult ever since the IGA was signed, with both RusHeliCo and India’s Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) wondering just how half of the helicopter will be built in India. Apart from the Ka-226T’s Turbomeca engines, several of the product’s cockpit and electronics systems are non-Russian, throwing up the complicated paradigm of navigating through ‘third party’ rules and satisfying very specific clauses set out in the IGA. An internal breakdown of the programme by HAL that Livefist had a chance to peruse suggests that even a low rate production facility will pass off little benefit to local industry, with most of the production restricted to the assembly of knocked down and semi knocked down kits.
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Quoted in the statement, Mr Boginskiy sounds hopeful, but it’s hard the miss the nerves that have crept in: “Meetings at that high level are very important for our company, as they allow to establish direct relationship with our key partners, and India is undoubtedly is one of them. Our joint Ka-226T project is implemented in line with the schedule, however, it is much to be done and we are at the very beginning. We also have a huge potential for developing aftersales maintenance and we will certainly discuss this matter with Madam Minister.”
Indo-Russia JV may sign contract for the supply of Ka-226T copters by early next year
But how many times have we heard this?"We discussed all aspects of the Ka-226T project. (It was) agreed that the contract should be signed in the beginning of 2018," Boginsky said.
I don't know how we got ourselves into this pickle. If the Ka-226 was to be built by a private sector, and LUH by HAL, there would be pressure on both to deliver quickly. Now, there is pressure on none! May be no private sector wanted to touch the Ka-226.