Page 7 - World Airnews Magazine March 2021

HELICOPTERS

to the declining defence budgets of the big
military powerhouses, the USA, Japan, the UK,
France, Italy, and Russia, among others. The
declining defence budgets are expected to

significantly impact on the helicopters market.
All of this despite the growth in commercial
and military helicopters seen previously over
the years. One of the major factors that was
driving this growth was the increased demand

for helicopters specifically meant for civil
and commercial work such as transport and

offshore activity.
But in the military helicopter procurement
market, various countries around the world
and especially in emerging economies and

Africa saw a demand for attack helicopters
increased.

From a global perspective, in June last year
Boeing received an order for 24 of its AH-64E
Apache Helicopters from Morocco. The com-
pany will build and deliver the new Moroccan
Apaches under a contract with the US Army
through the US government’s foreign military
sales process while just over six months be-
fore that Russia and Nigeria signed a deal for
Russia to supply 12 Mi-35 attack helicopters

to Nigeria
It is also noteworthy that several countries
around the world have had to increase their
defence spending in order to strengthen their
border security and for the procurement of
advanced weapons and technologies. This may

also help the growth of the military rotorcraft
market in the years to come. Advancement in
aircraft technologies, the necessity for the re-

placement of aging helicopters, and increase
in disasters are some of the driving factors for
the use of military helicopters while in Africa

specifically, armed conflict and political insta-

bility will continue to play a big part.
Currently, the attack helicopter segment

has the highest market share out of all the
segments, due to the procurement of attack

helicopters on a large scale around the world.
However, the other segments, which include
rotorcraft used for several purposes, like

reconnaissance, training, observation, and

maritime purposes, are projected for a high
growth rate, due to the increasing usage of

the rotorcraft.
There have been some interesting initia-
tives in recent times towards the production
of advanced military rotorcrafts. In 2018,
Sikorsky and Boeing unveiled the look of
the "Defiant", which was one of two designs
competing under the US Army's joint multi-
role technology demonstrator programme.
Then in January this year they unveiled the
“Defiant X”, a more refined version of the
original defiant helicopter and a design pro-
posal for the US Army’s Future Long Range
Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) programme.
The ongoing partnerships are expected to
bring new and advanced rotorcraft models
to the market for years to come and sub-
sequently leading to the further advance-
ment and growth of the military helicopter
market. Q

World Airnews | March 2021
W orld Airne w s | Mar ch 2021
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