The plant's workshops were hit by the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation during a special military operation to protect Donbass
MOSCOW, May 25. /tass/. The strike of the Russian Armed Forces on the workshops of the Ukrainian enterprise "Motor Sich" in Zaporozhye, which was reported on Wednesday by the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, will not affect helicopter operators in Russia, including those who use cars with Ukrainian engines. This opinion was expressed by military experts interviewed by TASS.
Earlier in the day, the official representative of the Russian Defense Ministry, Major General Igor Konashenkov, said that the Russian Armed Forces, during a special military operation to protect Donbass, hit the production workshops of the plant with high-precision sea- and air-based missiles.
As Dmitry Litovkin, the editor-in-chief of the newspaper Independent Military Review (NVO), noted, to date, Russian operators have replaced the company's products with imports. "Motor Sich played a huge role in the system of the Soviet military industry, all engines for all helicopters that are manufactured in Russia were supplied by Motor Sich. It is clear that import substitution has taken place today, and the UEC-Klimov plant in St. Petersburg meets the needs of the Russian army and civil aviation in engines," he explained.
Oleg Panteleev, Executive director of the industry agency Aviport, also believes that strikes against Motor Sich will not affect Russian operators. "The production of new helicopters in Russia is fully provided with engines produced by UEC enterprises. Maintenance of engines of the TV3-117 family (installed on Mi-8 and Mi-24 helicopters - approx. TASS) in the interests of Russian operators will also not suffer," he said, adding that the Russian side has already established centers for the repair and maintenance of these engines.
At the same time, the expert noted that serious problems may arise with the provision of repairs of helicopter engines of Mi-8, Mi-24 and Ka-32 helicopters from foreign operators if they ordered engine repair and maintenance work from Motor Sich. "If they ordered engine repairs in Russia, there will be no problems," Panteleev stressed.
Blow to the workshops of the enterprise
The editor-in-chief of the NVO Litovkin noted that the Russian armed forces struck the workshops of the plant, since it manufactured engines for Bayraktar TB-2 drones intended for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. "It is clear that the Russian General Staff could not have had another solution," he stressed.
In turn, Panteleev noted that it is too early to judge the production of which components suffered. "From the reports of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, it is now impossible to conclude that the production of certain components for helicopter engines has been destroyed. Now the scale <...> incomprehensible," the expert explained.
As Litovkin recalled, Vyacheslav Boguslaev, president of Motor Sich, brought production to China, which has already become the main supplier of aircraft engines for Soviet-era helicopters that are operated outside the Russian Federation. "It should be understood that we alone have produced about 80 thousand Mi-8 units, and each has two engines. Engines tend to break down, they need to be constantly changed, that is, China is now becoming a monopolist in the production of helicopter engines for former Soviet cars and, in fact, newly created ones," the expert explained.
About the company
PJSC Motor Sich is one of the largest manufacturers of engines for aircraft, as well as industrial gas turbine plants, supplying products to more than 100 countries. It was founded in 1907. After the collapse of the USSR, the company continued to actively cooperate with Russia, but after the coup in Ukraine in 2014, Kiev unilaterally terminated military-technical cooperation with Moscow.
Among the main products of the plant were engines for the Be-200 amphibious aircraft, Mi and Ka helicopters, including Ka-62, Ka-52, Mi-17, Mi-24M, Mi-28 and Ansat, An-70 military transport aircraft, AN-124 Ruslan and AN-225 Mriya, Yak-130 combat training aircraft and others. The company also produced industrial installations for ground applications, gas turbine drives, fuel pumps. It has a license for the right to conduct independent foreign economic activity and export services for air transportation of military products. PJSC Motor Sich includes the Zaporozhye Motor-Building Plant named after V. I. Omelchenko, Snezhnyansky Machine-Building Plant and Lubensky Machine-Tool Plant.
In 2016, 56% of the shares of PJSC Motor Sich were acquired by the Chinese company Skyrizon ("Skyrizon"). Later, these securities were seized, for three years investors from China were not called to general meetings, they were not paid dividends, shareholders were deprived of the opportunity to influence the actions of management. In December 2020, the Chinese side initiated arbitration against Ukraine, initially estimating the damage from the current situation at $3.5 billion. On January 28, 2021, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky put into effect the decision of the National Security and Defense Council of the country on sanctions against Skyrizon and Chinese citizen Wang Jin, who is a key shareholder of Skyrizon. The Chinese Foreign Ministry, in response to Ukraine's sanctions, demanded that the rights of Chinese investors be respected.
In 2018, Ukraine won a tender worth $40 million for the repair and modernization of 17 Mi-17 helicopters belonging to the Gendarmerie of Turkey. This contract was executed, including by the Zaporozhye enterprise "Motor Sich".
In the autumn of 2021, Motor Sich, together with the state enterprise Ivchenko-Progress, signed a contract with the Turkish company Baykar Makina for the supply of engines for the Bayraktar TB2 UAV. Also, the Zaporozhye enterprise, under a contract signed in June 2021, supplied Turkey with TV3-117VMA-SBM1V turboshaft engines of the first series to equip ATAK-II heavy class helicopters with them.