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Rooivalk helicopter. WILL TURKEY TAKE THE CHOPPER?(Financial Mail Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)Rooivalk helicopter WILL TURKEY TAKE THE CHOPPER? The Rooivalk helicopter's last chance for survival may be in Turkish hands. A technical evaluation team from Turkey is here to assess the possible purchase of 50 of the armoured gunships for its armed forces. Denel CEO Shaun Liebenberg says it is probably the best opportunity we've ever had with Rooivalk. The future of our helicopter capability is dependent on this deal. We'll probably know by August if it's on. He refuses to qualify his comment as a last-chance warning about Rooivalk, saying only that if the Turkish option wilts, government will have to reconsider the programme. Rooivalk, developed in the 1980s in the heat of the apartheid war, has weighed like an albatross around Denel's neck because it has failed to attract foreign orders that make it cost-effective to produce. The SA Air Force has 12, keeping the programme open at a huge cost to Denel. Liebenberg is involved in a workshop with private SA aero-engineering companies Aerosud and ATE to assess the feasibility of producing a lighter and less costly version of the helicopter dubbed Rooivalk Lite to sell to developing countries. But this would depend on a big Turkish order. Rooivalk is competing against an Agusta-Westland consortium and the lighter Eurocopter. Aerosud chiefs were involved in Rooivalk's development. ATE has found a ready market in developing countries for reconditioned Russian Hind helicopter gunships, having sold about 100 units around the world in recent years. It might have had even more success if Denel had been more willing to share its technology and gone into business with ATE, using the Rooivalk air frame instead. |