Hindsight No Benefit

As a central European effort to collectively upgrade their combined Mil Mi-24 Hind attack helicopter fleet apparently unravels, Poland is moving toward an independent tender in September.

The so-called Visegrad four (V4)--Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary--have been attempting to stitch together an avionics upgrade and airframe life-extension program covering some 105 of their Soviet-era Mi-24s. However, faced with near "life-expired" airframes (a substantial element of the fleet runs out of life by 2005) and an inability to hammer out a detailed agreement, the erstwhile partners are drifting toward pursuing different routes to sustain their combat helicopter capabilities.

Defense ministers from the participating countries met in late June to try to create a plan for moving forward, but not much came of it. "As of now, the V4 program seems to have come to an end," one industry source close to the program suggested. "Poland is proceeding with a national tender, likely to be issued in September," he added.

While the Czech Republic is also now believed to favor pursuing a national tender, which could emerge during the fourth quarter of 2003, dialogue continues between Poland, Hungary and Slovakia as to whether elements of a common program can still be pulled together.

Were a tender to emerge from Warsaw in September or October, then a winner could be selected and under contract by June or July of 2004, given Polish procurement regulations.

Poland has also trimmed the cloth of its upgrade ambitions, at least initially. Instead of upgrading 40 Mi-24 Hinds as originally envisioned, the Polish defense ministry is understood to be currently considering a first batch of as few as 16 helicopters. This will likely be followed by one or more additional batches, eventually bringing the total number close to the original 40 airframes.

An upgraded, NATO-compatible Hind was part of the capabilities commitment of the three partner states (Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary) that joined the alliance in 1999. In May, the Czechs told NATO it would not meet its target of having at least a handful of upgraded Hinds available by 2005. This was the result of the program repeatedly slipping to the right.

Despite the program's checkered progress, it continues, in all its guises, to attract considerable industrial interest. Elbit and Lockheed Martin, Israel Aircraft Industries, Sagem and Rosoboronexport, Eurocopter, Thales, BAE Systems and South Africa's Advanced Technologies Engineering have all looked to garner business from the program. IAI and ATE already have performed upgrade work on the Mi-24, with programs in India and Algeria, respectively.

In looking to gain experience upgrading an actual airframe, and developing a technology demonstrator, BAE has acquired a former Soviet Mi-24 Hind D, and plans to complete a front and rear cockpit upgrade by no later than mid-2004.

"We will demonstrate a fully functional system in 2004," said Jim Field, BAE's head of campaigns for battlefield systems. BAE, however, has no plans to fly its Hind demonstrator.

BAE is also trying to ensure that, should it eventually be selected as prime contractor by one or more of the Visegrad states, that it has a suitable agreement in place with the original manufacturer, Mil. Field said a team visited Russia in late July to discuss this issue.

On more than one occasion Russia has complained vociferously over Western and Israeli companies upgrading its platforms without the agreement of the Russian manufacturer.