Vietnam joins Russian helicopter technical assurance chain
Russian company ODK Klimov said that Russian helicopter engines in Southeast Asia will receive genuine maintenance services, based in Vietnam.
Russian helicopter developer and manufacturer ODK-Klimov (headquartered in St. Petersburg) and Vietnam Helicopter Technical Service Company (Helicopter Technical Service Vietnam) have signed a contract for maintenance of Soviet/Russian helicopter engines operating in Vietnam and some Southeast Asian countries.
The document envisages the opening of a representative office of ODK-Klimov in Vung Tau with an integrated Logistics Support Center by the end of 2018, which will include a repair workshop, a helicopter engine repair center, a warehouse for spare parts and components.
The center will receive certification from the aviation authorities of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in December 2018, after conducting a pilot repair of one engine.
What types of modules and engines will be able to be maintained at this Center and what level of complexity will it be able to repair? In an exclusive interview with the Russian news agency Sputnik, ODK-Klimov CEO Alexandr Vatagin revealed this.
According to him, the Logistics Support Center will carry out all types of repairs to restore previously decommissioned VK-2500 and TV3-117 helicopter engines.
In addition, on the basis of the Center will carry out work with the direct support of ODK-Klimov to operate the engine, including: Expanding the parameters of the engine and main gearbox BP-14/BP-252, verifying the user manual, providing technical support for operation, training specialists...
According to the Russian official, there is no secret when it comes to the repair and maintenance of Soviet and Russian-made helicopters in Vietnam and Southeast Asia in general.
There is a big problem here, in many cases, operators carry out equipment repairs themselves by inviting unauthorized organizations to do the work. In order to save costs, they use fake spare parts, components and parts of unknown origin.
As a result, the quality of repairs and the reliability of helicopters inevitably decrease. This leads to a deterioration in the airworthiness of the helicopter fleet, which undermines the reliability of Russian helicopter technology.
This led to “speculation” in some local media aimed at undermining the prestige of Russian helicopters and promoting Western European and American-made helicopters for the regional market.
Thus, the establishment of the ODK-Klimov Logistics Support Center can help in the fight against counterfeiting, wrong saving and, ultimately, against unfair competition.
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| Vietnam participates in the chain of logistics assurance and repair of Russian helicopter engines |
According to Mr. Alexandr Vatagin, the Center will provide competitive services at all times, with high quality and low cost. The great advantage will be the huge capabilities of ODK-Klimov as a developer and manufacturer of engines. In addition, the company will provide warranty guarantees for units or repair parts of countries.
Working in the host country, the Russian Logistics Center will also receive information about unscrupulous competitors, explaining and clarifying that inviting illegal suppliers of products and services to maintain Russian engines is a direct path to flight accidents.
As reported by the media, the contract also provides for the maintenance of helicopter technology from some of Vietnam’s neighboring countries. Is this true and on what basis will it be done?
The ODK-Klimov official said that Helicopter Technical Service has been providing maintenance services for Mi-class helicopters for a long time and has a large network of customers in the region.
Therefore, a distribution agreement effective in 10 countries was signed between ODK-Klimov and Helicopter Technical Service operating in 10 countries.
Alexandr Vatagin concluded that, according to this document, the distributor is responsible for providing services in a specific region and will promote the services under the ODK-Klimov brand in the region, and Vietnam is an important part of this chain.
At present, Vietnamese units are operating more than 100 helicopters manufactured by the Soviet Union and Russia, including Mi-8/17, Ka-28, Ka-32 and several other types, equipped with turbine engines of the TV3-117 family manufactured by the Saint-Petersburg enterprise of the Klimov-Union Corporation.
Currently, in addition to repairing and upgrading old engines, the Russian Engine Manufacturing Corporation proposes that Vietnam and foreign partners replace the TV3-117 engine with a more powerful modern product, the VK-2500.