MOSCOW. June 17 (Interfax-AVN) - Russia has pledged to provide the United States with thirty Mil Mi-17V5 helicopters to be sent to Afghanistan under a contract valued at more than $500 million.
"It is one of the biggest weapons contracts to have been signed with the U.S. in the last several decades. Its total cost exceeds $500 million," a source in a Russian entity involved in arms exports told Interfax-AVN on Monday.
It was reported earlier on Monday that Rosoboronexport and the U.S. Department of the Army have signed a contract for the supply of Russian helicopters to the Afghan army.
"A contract for the supply of Russian Mi helicopters for the Afghan National Army was signed by JSC Rosoboronexport and the U.S. Department of the Army in Paris on June 16 as part of the joint efforts to combat terrorism," the Federal Service on Military-Technical Cooperation said in a report obtained by Interfax-AVN.
Responding to a question from Interfax-AVN as to how many helicopters the contract talks about, Alexander Mikheyev, deputy head of Rosoboronexport said "thirty".
The United States and Russia signed two contracts earlier on the supply of helicopters to the Afghan Army.
The first contract for the supply of 21 Mi-17V5 helicopters to Afghanistan was signed by Rosoboronexport and the U.S. Department of Defense in May 2011. The total worth of the contract was some $900 million.
In June 2012, the contract for the supply of 21 helicopters was successfully executed and another optional contract for the supply of 12 helicopters was signed a month later. The value of the new contract, according to U.S. sources, was $171.4 million.
The helicopters supplied to Afghanistan are adapted to the tasks set by the administration of the Afghan Army and the U.S. Department of Defense on the sphere of the fight against terrorist groups.
It was also reported that there are plans to build a center in Afghanistan to maintain Russian-made helicopters, including Mi-17, Мi-8, and Mi-35.