Russian arms vendor has delivered two Mil Mi-171E military medium weight transport helicopters to the Ecuadorian Army Aviation.

According to the Ambassador of the Russian Federation in Ecuador, this pair of Mil helicopters delivered according to the respective contract between Ecuador’s Ministry of Defense and Russian state arms vendor Rosoboronexport. The contract comes with a commercial credit arranged to support this deal. The ambassador stressed that this is the first contract between Russia and Ecuador that goes with a structured financial package for acquisition of military hardware. The deal is estimated at US dollar 22 million.

Under request of the customer, provision was made that one of the helicopters can carry specified fire fighting equipment. The Russian side hopes that civilian authorities will also be interested in Russian rotorcraft, including fire fighting helicopters. It was further said that the helicopters are configured with a large cargo ramp in the back of the cargo cabin. This allows transportation of large cargoes including cars and other wheeled road vehicles.