To put it in context a helicopter is a useful transport item for medical and emergency services. They are enormously expensive to buy and to operate, ..
Passanger Mi-4/6/8/17s been used on regularly scheduled flights in Siberia/FN/FE, despite the cost-as there r often no other way to get from point A to point B there.
If however you are talking about the far north of Russia it would take longer but you could make long trips via ground vehicles...No roads, but no need for roads because these are rugged cross country vehicles designed for arctic conditions.
but they r not tanks to go through the thick taiga; helos can fly at treetop level & over marshes/rivers/lakes/mountains & find a clearing to land in an emergency.
An-2s are designed to operate from rough air strips... which means unprepared flat areas of ground... if fitted with skis that includes frozen rivers and lakes or areas of packed down snow.
not all locations have them nearby.
The stall speed of the new An-2 means that if there is a strong head wind they can actually fly backwards.
in most landings, the wind may not be there &/ in the right direction for that.
They don't have a shortage of helos for that, what they need more of are fire fighting aircraft like Be-200 and A-42s.
having more helos would still be better.
Aircraft Carrier Island: Baltic Fleet tested mobile airfields The Navy now can quickly arrange a military aircraft landing on any unequipped site
As I been saying, they can set up smaller airfields in Siberia/FN/FE for tandem/tilt-rotors & for a lot le$$ & quicker than building regular airstrips for fixed wings.
You should buy the best for the job at hand... except when the provider has a history of unreliability... that would be France and Britain and the US, but not Russia ironically.
the Indians r not as stupid as u imagine: they know that they r indispensable to the US due to China & Russia factors, so there's no risk of losing any support for imported aircraft.
Based on their retarded logic they should not buy any...
they certainly won't buy more Mi-26s; but to cultivate relations with Russia, imports of other helos, etc. will continue, even if in smaller #s.
..the Indian prime minister declined to sign the long-negotiated deal on purchasing 200 Russian Ka-226T air force utility helicopters (RIA Novosti, September 4). Russia’s offer to build India six diesel-electric submarines on the basis of an inter-governmental agreement instead of partaking in the already-announced Indian tender was also left unanswered (Nezavisimaya Gazeta, September 5). Multiple assurances of the traditional bilateral friendship can barely hide concerns in Moscow about Indian preferences for cultivating military-technological ties with the United States (Russiancouncil.ru, August 20).https://jamestown.org/program/putin-tries-to-find-asia-beyond-china/
In the transfer of troops to the border with the PRC, the main military transport aircraft of the Indian Air Force are involved. For the transfer of artillery, India is also expected to use the Chinook transport helicopters recently received from the United States.: https://regnum.ru/news/polit/2719077.html
Replacing the Mi-6 is more likely the new Chinese and Russian joint venture helo in the 10-15 ton payload range...
Pl. read my prev. post: don't count on Russia importing it in large #s, if at all- it's mostly for the Chinese & their friends in the developing nations. The Mi-6 is too good of a helo to be replaced by anything other than a Russian made 1, for work in harsh Russian conditions.
History of yak helos in the USSR: https://www.arms-expo.ru/articles/armed-forces/vertikalno-vzletayushchaya-ekzotika-vertoley-razrabatyvaemye-okb-yakovleva/?utm_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fzen.yandex.com
Last edited by Tsavo Lion on 17/11/19, 06:19 am; edited 6 times in total (Reason for editing : add a quote, text, links)