Russian Helicopters’ backlog of firm orders was 585 rotorcraft valued at Rouble 490 billion (U.S.$9.8 billion at the then-current exchange rate), the manufacturer announced at HeliRussia 2015 held May 21 to 23 in Moscow. In 2014 the number of shipments stood at 271, compared to 275 in 2013; they were distributed almost equally to local and foreign customers in 11 countries. By number of deliveries, Russian Helicopters is second only to Airbus Helicopters (471 in 2014). It is set to deliver 244 helicopters this year.

Alexander Mikheyev, Russian Helicopters’ general manager, said he expects shipments to range from 230 to 280 helicopters in the period until 2030. If accurate, this prediction would secure jobs for most of Russian Helicopters’ workforce of 46,500 who are employed on 26 projects under the umbrella of the holding company.

“The trend to a reduction in the number of our shipments year on year (during the 2013 to 2015 time frame) can be offset through the introduction of new designs and an increase in both quality and volume of services offered to our customers,” Mikheyev told AIN. “In past several years we have delivered a lot of helicopters, and thus fulfilled a great deal of market demand for our products. This applies both to domestic and overseas markets. A new challenge we are facing now is to provide better aftersales support and maintenance for the global fleet of Mil and Kamov helicopters which has grown recently. In order to keep our market share at some 20 pecent, we need to improve aftersales support, and we also need to add new helicopter models. These changes can help relieve the recent trend of a decline in shipments.”

Last year the manufacturer’s income amounted to nearly Roubles 170 billion, with a profit of Roubles 20.7 billion. Helicopter sales accounted for 83 percent, the rest coming from services and aftersales support. The share of R&D in company’s expenses stood at 5 percent of income.

“Broadly speaking, our economic model remains more or less predictable even in the current conditions,” Mikheyev stated. “The problems we are facing or are going to face are also predictable. This gives us opportunity and time to address them and find some cures.” Among problems experienced by Russian manufacturers, he mentioned “high costs of hired capital, inflation and residual effects from escalation of global tensions.” He stressed that none of Russian Helicopters problems are specific, but rather shared throughout the whole of the national economy. “And yet we have rather large portfolio of export contracts. This brings us income in hard currencies, and enables us to partly offset the difficulties arising from the national economy problems.”

The constantly evolving Mi-8/17 family of helicopters accounted for more than half of all shipments in the past several years. Last year, two of the factories–Kazan Helicopters and Ulan-Ude Aviation Plant (UUAZ)–assembled more than 150 units. The main export customers are China, India and the U.S. (which bought a total of 63 Mi-17V5s for the Afghan Army in 2011-2014).

Mikheyev does not see a need to develop a replacement: “This helicopter remains very popular in the global marketplace,” he said. Continuous efforts have been made to improve the current factory standard by replacing some metallic parts with those made of composite materials; for example, metallic armor is being replaced by Kevlar. Since its introduction into service the Mi-8 has been constantly improved through numerous modernization programs. “The platform itself is well proven and its production streamlined. We continue working on extending its lifetime resources, avionics and weapons systems.” A new evolution of the highly successful design comes in the form of Mi-171A2, which is equipped with KBO-17 avionics from the Ulianovsk instrument-making design house (UIMDB). It is now under trials with two prototypes and will become production standard starting next year.

The Mi-38, which originally was intended to be a replacement for the Mi-8/17, is now being marketed as a new, improved design. “The Mi-38 is to fill another market niche; it is a unique machine in the class of its own,” according to Mikheyev. The fourth operable prototype (OP-4), powered by Klimov TV7-117V turboshaft engines, began flying last October. Two earlier prototypes, powered by Pratt & Whitney PW127Hs, have been reequipped with Klimov engines. Mil design house hopes to win Russian airworthiness certification by year-end. The OP-4 sets the production standard for Kazan Helicopters, which has already begun assembly of first production example, with delivery planned for next year.

At HeliRussia 2015, Russian Helicopters accepted airworthiness certificates for commercial versions of the Kamov Ka-226T and Ansat-GMSU medium helicopters. At the show, the manufacturer signed contracts for five Ansat-GMSUs with Tulpar Helicopters and Vector. They will be first commercial users of the type. Meantime, the Russian air force, which took six last year, is deciding whether to place additional orders for the Ansat-U, its customized version with the KSU-A fly-by-wire controls from Moscow-based MNPK Avionika (the commercial version has an hydraulic mechanical flight control system). A total of 30 Ansat-Us are operational with the Syzran flying school in the role of training helicopters.

The Ka-226T’s future was secured in December 2014, when Russian president Vladimir Putin paid a visit to New Delhi. India has selected this type for local production under license at Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. On May 13, the Indian MoD’s Defense Acquisition Council (DAC) approved the deal. “We expect that an initial order would be up to 200 helicopters,” Mikheyev said. Eventually, the number may grow to 400 to 500, he suggested. The Russian partner is expecting an official confirmation of the deal shortly, he added.