Russian Helicopters Company Says to Repair Additional Hungarian Mi-17 Military Chopper

Originally appeared at RussiaFeed.com

MOSCOW, August 3 (Sputnik) – The Russian Helicopter company has finished the overhaul of four Mi-17 military helicopters for the Hungarian Ministry of Defense, planning on repairing one more chopper on a separate agreement in September, the holding said in a statement on Thursday.

The contract on the four helicopters maintenance works was sealed in July 2016.

“Russian Helicopters holding has finished overhaul of four Mi-17 military transport helicopters of the Hungarian Ministry of Defense … It is planned that the fifth Mi-17 of Hungary’s armed forces will be repaired in September in the framework of a separate agreement,”

the statement read.

The Hungarian helicopters were repaired at the holding’s plant in Russia’s Siberian city of Novosibirsk, with their service life for another eight years, or 2,000 hours. The four helicopters have already been delivered to Hungary’s Szolnok air base.

“We are glad to announce that we have finalized the contract with the Hungarian military agency on time. High-quality aftersales service is one of the holding’s top priorities,”

Russian Helicopters Deputy CEO Igor Chechikov said as quoted in the statement, recommending all the company’s customers to conduct maintenance works exclusively at authorized facilities.

Russian Helicopters, one of the leading players in the global helicopter industry, the sole Russian rotorcraft designer and manufacturer, was established in 2007.

Mi-17 helicopters are manufactured by two Russian factories in Kazan and Ulan-Ude. Over 12,000 of these machines came off the production line, which is the global record for two-engine helicopters. Over the years, Russia has exported Mi-17s to over 100 countries all over the world.