PPRuNe Forums - Canadian MI-17s

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Back to Trojan's original question:

"CF: Leased Mi-17s? We'd love to tell you, but it's a secret."

Quote:

Canadian military officials say information about helicopters leased for use in Afghanistan isn't being released because it could help insurgents. A Canadian Forces officer says the Department of Defense might release more information about the helicopters at a later date.
The Defense Department acquired the MI-17 helicopters for combat use in Afghanistan but has refused to provide details about how much the deal cost taxpayers or how many aircraft are operating, Postmedia News reported.
The military says the lease was the result of a competitive contract but the details were not published on the MERX Web site, which formally lists such information, the report said.
Military officials said releasing the helicopter information now could help Afghan insurgents.
The new helicopters have been used in Kandahar province since spring and are among tens of millions of dollars worth of equipment to be used in Afghanistan the Defense Department has kept secret, sources told Postmedia.
A spokeswoman for Canadian Forces, Navy Lt. Kelly Rozenberg-Payne, said the cost of the lease might be made public later. She said the helicopters were requested by commanders in Afghanistan.
"The (operational) tempo within the air wing became very great and it was just assessed by commanders on the ground that they needed additional platforms to help move troops around," she said.
Canada operates Chinook helicopters in Kandahar and leases helicopters from Toronto-based Skylink Aviation. It also operates its own Griffon helicopters.

Off-topic, interesting to see a new Mi-17 appear recently on one of the industry's most widely used aircraft sales websites, priced at $12M.

I/C

Gov in Poland learned almost the same lesson.... :mad:

CBC News - Politics - Tories mum on Russian choppers lease

Finally some official info.

Oops I missed the earlier post sorry Ian. .

Thanks very much. Ian, that is exactly what I was after:ok:.

CASR article on Canadian CH-178

Mi-17 vs Western Aircrafts

I think I understand why some people complain about Mi-17 parts quality.
My company supply Mi-17 parts for Iraq Air Forces for the last 4 years already. And we receive a lot of complains on the parts produced (or overhauled) in Ukraine. I've heard about ukrainian vendors supplying fake passports and fake parts. If you don't deal with Ukrainian vendors and deal directly with manufacture plants (like Kazan Helicopters and Ulan-Ude), you will not have any complains from the customers. That's the lesson we had to learn.

We operated an MI8AMT (new from Ulan Ude) in early 90's and I don't think another "western" equivalent class of helicopter could have been operated in the same though conditions. We dealt with highly professional crews and engineers as well as a very good service from the factory.
This helicopter was certified for " cargo and service passengers" only, and in my point of view, the weak point was the low life time of the components....certification norms were obviously far away from FAR/JAR.

I only hope that its successor (the Mi 38?) is certified according to the FAR/JAR standards for passenger transport, still keeping the MI8AMT/MTV roughness and level of performance, with of course, a better life time on components to make it commercially profitable.

Dreaming to fly one....again :ok: