MOSCOW. June 24 (Interfax-AVN) - The joint state trials of the MI-24VM Hind version are to end late this year, a competent source in the Russian defense industry told Interfax-Military News Agency Tuesday.
The agenda of the trials includes both domestic- and export- use upgrades, the source said.
According to the source, the Hind derivative is being tried within the so-called unit-by-unit upgrade program of operational Hind family helicopters, proposed by Mil Helicopter Plant.
The helicopters are upgraded by a routine technology by Rostov-on-Don-based Rostvertol, a Russian helicopter producer. For example, new VK-2500 engines for the Hind are "very aggressively" tested. The MI-24VM also has a new load-carrying system including the wobble plate, the X-tail rotor from the MI- 28N Havoc, non-retracting landing gear, and a shorter wing.
According to the source, Rostvertol will export 18 MI-35 Hind helicopters in 2003, 10 of them to Ethiopia, six to the Czech Republic, and two to Indonesia. In addition, Rostvertol will repair eight helicopters in Sudan, Uganda, and India.