Pakistan reportedly close to sign deal for four Russian-made Mi-35M gunship helicopters

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World Aviation Defense & Security News - Pakistan
 
 
 
Pakistan reportedly close to sign deal for four Russian-made Mi-35M gunship helicopters
 
Pakistan is close to finalise a deal with Russia to buy Mi-35M "Hind E" attack helicopters, a sign of increasing defence ties between the Cold War-era adversaries. According to a source in the Russian military, “Following the results of the talks held earlier on helicopters, which Pakistan would like to get from Russia, a draft contract on the delivery of four Mi-35M gunships has been sent to the Pakistani side. Pakistan is now studying the document”, reported local medias.
     
Pakistan is close to finalise a deal with Russia to buy Mi-35M "Hind E" attack helicopters, a sign of increasing defence ties between the Cold War-era adversaries. According to a source in the Russian military, “Following the results of the talks held earlier on helicopters, which Pakistan would like to get from Russia, a draft contract on the delivery of four Mi-35M gunships has been sent to the Pakistani side. Pakistan is now studying the document”, reported local medias. Russian Helicopters Mi-35M "Hind E" combat helicopter
     
Just last year, Russia’s Rostec hi-tech corporation CEO Sergey Chemezov announced that Russia had lifted its embargo on the delivery of armaments and military hardware to Pakistan and was holding negotiations on the delivery of helicopters to the country.

The deal is believed to be signed after the conclusion of Army chief General Raheel Sharif's three-day visit to Moscow.

An agreement would be signed 'very soon', the Dawn quoted a defence official as saying.

The official, however, avoided disclosing when and where the deal would be inked and how many helicopters were being purchased. Pakistan had been pursuing the helicopter purchase deal since 2009.

The two countries had signed a bilateral defence cooperation agreement aimed at strengthening military-to- military relations in November last year.

The deal had to be followed by another 'technical cooperation agreement' to pave the way for sale of defence equipment to Pakistan.

On the last day of his Moscow visit, General Sharif on Wednesday attended a meeting on the proposed technical accord.

Besides helicopters, Pakistan also appears interested in other Russian hardware.

According to local media, the army chief spent about 15 hours during his trip at an arms expo near Moscow that featured Russia's cutting edge weapons and military equipment. He inspected not only the weapon systems on display but also saw their live demonstration.

The Mi-35M Hind E is an export night attack variant of the well-known Mi-24. It is fitted with OPS-24N surveillance-and-sighting station, television channel, GPS-guided navigation system, optional non-Russian radio station, gyro-stabilised electro-optical battlefield surveillance and sighting system with a laser range-finder, or BREO-24 avionics suite with 9S475N night vision surveillance and sighting sub-system.