DTN News: Brazil’s Mi-35M Attack Helicopter Passes Critical Review

DTN News: Brazil’s Mi-35M Attack Helicopter Passes Critical Review

*Source: DTN News / Defense Media

(NSI News Source Info) BRASILIA, Brazil - August 10, 2009: During the past month, the Critical Design Review of the Mi-35M attack helicopter (Brazilian designation: AH-2 Sabre) and of its flight simulator, both being acquired by the Air Force Command (Comaer) from the Russian companies Rosoboronexport (state firm responsible for the commercialization of defense materials), Rostvertol PLC (manufacturer of the helicopter) and Transas-Kronshtadt (in charge of its simulator). 12 Mi-35M (AH-2 Sabre) ordered in December 2008. Deliveries start in 2009 and finish in 2010. Since 1978, around 2,000 Mi-24s have been manufactured, 600 for export. In October 2007, defense-aerospace.com reported that the Saudi Arabian government had signed a contract for up to 150 Mi-35 and Mi-17 helicopters worth $2.2 billion.

With the objective of complementing the project’s Preliminary Design Review, which was carried out in April of this year at the Afonsos Aeronautical Material Park (Rio de Janeiro), the Critical Design Review was divided in two stages:

--the first, which took place July 8-17 in the city of Rostov-on-Don (Russia), during which questions relative to the helicopter were approached;

--the second, begun on July 20 and concluded four days later, in the city of Saint Petersburg (Russia), concentrated on issues relating to the flight simulator.

In the two phases of the meeting, the Air Force Command was represented by members of the Mi-35M Acquisition and Acceptance Committee, established in Russia, and by a technical team Working Group for the Introduction of the AH-2 in the Brazilian Air Force (GT Sabre), comprising military personnel from the General Command for Aerospace Technology (CTA), the Directorate of Aerospace and Combat Matériel (Dirmab) and the Airspace Control Department (Decea).

The meetings in Russia locked up the cycle of revisions of the project, and marked the beginning of the tasks that the Russian companies will have to complete before the delivery of the helicopters and simulators to the Brazilian authorities.