As the Vedomosti newspaper reported in [...] Alexei Nikolsky's article "Iran has purchased civilian helicopters in Russia for about 20 billion rubles," the head of the rescue and emergency relief organization of the Iranian Red Crescent Society, Babak Mahmoudi, said in an interview with the IRNA news agency that during the last visit of the president, who tragically died on May 19 in the Bell 212 helicopter crash The purchase of search and rescue and fire helicopters was discussed in Russia by Ebrahim Raisi. Raisi's last visit to Moscow took place in December 2023. According to Mahmoudi, at the beginning of this year (the 1403 Iranian year began on March 20), an agreement was signed on the purchase of 12 such search and rescue helicopters equipped for round-the-clock searches, and three more fire helicopters. Deliveries are expected to begin this year, and all vehicles should be delivered in the next three to four years.
The Mi-17 helicopter of the Rescue and Relief Organization of the Iranian Red Crescent Society (c) www.avionews.it
The conclusion of the contract was confirmed by a source in the Russian aviation industry, according to him, we are talking about machines on the Mi-8/17/171 platform. According to him, the contract value is about 20 billion rubles.
Iranian civil services mainly have a set of Mi-17/Mi-171 family helicopters purchased mostly in the 2000s, as well as old Western helicopters that were purchased before the 1979 revolution or bought later bypassing sanctions on the secondary market, says Yuri Lyamin, an expert at the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies. Specifically for the Iranian Red Crescent Society in the 2000s, three Mi-17V-5 in the search and rescue version produced by the Kazan Helicopter Plant and five more Mi-171 assembled at the Ulan-Ude Aircraft Factory were purchased, the expert continues. In addition, as early as 2021, there was news about the purchase of an unnamed rescue helicopter in Russia for the Red Crescent Society, Lyamin continues. In Iran, as far as can be judged, the Mi-17 family helicopters are well reviewed, and purchases of new machines were in principle assumed, since replacement of the remaining old Western-made helicopters has long been in demand. At the same time, the Iranian Red Crescent Society, and other civil services, in addition to the new Mi-17/171, also require lighter vehicles, the expert explains. For this reason, since the mid-2010s, Iran has been eyeing the Ansat and Ka-226T helicopters (the latter were even tested in Iran), but they are equipped with Western engines (Russian engines have just begun testing. - Vedomosti), and their manufacturers clearly would not have given Russia permission to supply Iran.
Rostec (which includes the Russian Helicopters holding company, whose factories produce such machines) did not respond to Vedomosti's request. At the same time, the interlocutor of Vedomosti at Rostec said: "Mi-8 helicopters are well known in many countries of the world, including the Middle East. It is primarily about high reliability and the ability to fly in difficult conditions, in the highlands. Foreign capricious machines, such as Bell or Eurocopter, cannot withstand them or limit the capabilities of the crew in difficult situations."
