Facility Should Produce 20 Civil AW139 Helicopters Per
Year
Russian Helicopters and
AgustaWestland broke ground Tuesday on a joint civil AW139 medium
twin helicopter final assembly plant. A time capsule was laid in
the base of the foundation at the industrial area in Tomilino, near
Moscow, during the official ceremony which was attended by
representatives and dignitaries from the partners.
The final assembly line is being built on a 430,000 square foot
site. The projected capacity is in excess of 20 helicopters per
year, with production expected to progressively increase, from 5
units in 2011 to a steady state regime in 2015. Total employment at
maximum capacity will be over 100 people. The plant will be run by
HeliVert, a Russian Helicopters and AgustaWestland
“equal” joint venture.
The ground-breaking milestone is
the latest achievement under the framework of the strategic
cooperation between UIC Oboronprom and AgustaWestland which started
in the summer of 2007 with the signing of a Memorandum of
Understanding “for cooperation development in the field of
helicopter production”. A Heads of Agreement was later signed
in Farnborough in July 2008 for the purpose of establishing a joint
venture to set up and run a civil AW139 final assembly line in
Russia. This was followed by the Joint Venture Agreement signed on
November 6th 2008 during the Italy-Russia intergovernmental summit
held at the Kremlin in Moscow and attended by the Russian President
Dmitri Medvedev and the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. A
shareholder agreement was subsequently signed in June 2010 paving
the path to start building the plant in Tomilino.
According to Sergey Chemezov, Director General of Russian
Technologies “The organization of a joint Russian-Italian
helicopter assembly plant is a new step in developing our business
relations with our strategic partner, Italian company Finmeccanica.
This is an important event not only for the helicopter industry,
but for Russian mechanical engineering as a whole. It is noteworthy
that this is happening in difficult financial and economic
conditions and proves that the crisis can and must be fought with
joint efforts and using all opportunities.”
Oboronprom Director General Andrey Reus said “The start of
the plant’s construction signifies a new stage of the growing
mutually beneficial cooperation between Russian and Italian
helicopter manufacturers. Thanks to it we will gain access to new
technical production solutions and high helicopter servicing
quality standards. We will seek to broaden our cooperation,
including by gradually localizing Italian helicopter manufacture in
Russia.”
“Russian Helicopters is increasing its presence in foreign
markets, delivering Russian rotorcraft to foreign customers and
opening service centres,” said Russian Helicopters COO Andrei
Shibitov. “In this respect we are greatly interested in the
foreign experience of organizing, managing, planning, certificating
production processes and know-how in managing the entire lifecycle
of a product. We are set to gain maximum benefit from joint
work with our Italian partners. Russian helicopters will strengthen
Russia’s commercial positions in the international helicopter
market.”
“We have been building a remarkable industrial base in
Russia in recent years by establishing major collaborations with
prime local companies in various fields of the civil sector.”
said Pier Francesco Guarguaglini, Chairman and Chief Executive
Officer of Finmeccanica. “This latest landmark provides clear
evidence of our commitment to playing an increasing role in the
region by the mean of a mutually beneficial industrial cooperation,
particularly in the civil rotorcraft sector.”
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