Two Russian Helicopter facilities to merge

Photo by Russian Helicopters

Russian Helicopters holding company is planning to merge its subsidiaries Kazan Helicopters and Kumertau Aviation Production Enterprise into a single helicopter manufacturing cluster. Kazan Helicopters will be the primary enterprise within the new structure; it will receive the Kumertau plant‘s assets and production capacities, Russian Helicopters says.

Russian Helicopters General Director Alexander Mikheev explains that the merger will help ramp up production of Mil and Kamov helicopters, thus improving both enterprises’ financial performance. For this to happen, production and repaid workload will be redistributed between the two facilities in 2018–2023.

The Kumertau enterprise is planning to launch production of components for the Mil Mi-8, Mi-38, and Kazan Helicopters Ansat models, and also to start manufacturing ground equipment. The facility will additionally expand its stamping, forging, and assembly capacities.

According to Kommersant daily, the Kumertau plant has incurred losses due to lacking orders in the past several years. However, the enterprise’s 2015 backlog will keep its working to full capacity.

Kazan Helicopters produces Ansat light multirole helicopters, the Mi-8/17 medium-lift multirole family, and the advanced Mi-38 medium multirole model. The Kumertau plant builds Kamov Ka-27 light multirole coaxial helicopters, Ka-32A11BC medium multirole helicopters, Ka-27 multirole ship-based helicopters, and Ka-31 naval airborne early warning and control helicopters.