March 19, 2024

Athens News

News in English from Greece

Russian aircraft BE-200 will extinguish forest fires in Greece

The Russian Be-200ES amphibious aircraft arrived in Greece today. It is reported that he will be involved in extinguishing forest fires in the country.

The corresponding agreement between the Ministry of Citizens’ Protection of Greece, which is responsible for organizing measures to combat natural fires, and PJSC “Il” was officially signed in Athens, the newspaper reports. rostec.ru

The preparation of the agreement was carried out with the support of the representative office of the State Corporation Rostec in Greece. The starting point was negotiations between the Russian delegation, headed by the First Deputy General Director of the Rostec State Corporation Vladimir Artyakov, and the Deputy Minister of Protection of Greek Citizens Nikos Hardalias in March this year.

“Forest fires pose a serious threat to human safety, especially if a natural disaster occurs in hard-to-reach areas. Aviation has repeatedly demonstrated in practice high efficiency and effectiveness in eliminating the consequences of forest fires. In the course of the flights, it is planned to work out new methods of water intake and discharge to fire sites under extreme hydrometeorological conditions. The Greek partners share our confidence in the capabilities of the Russian vehicle and count on effective support in the fight against air fire, ”commented Vladimir Artyakov.

The Russian side regularly receives requests from foreign countries for assistance in eliminating forest fires. In 2020, for the first time, a contract for the provision of firefighting services with a foreign customer was implemented. The Russian Be-200ES amphibious aircraft received positive ratings. This contributed to its promotion to foreign markets – both in the format of providing services and for the purpose of direct deliveries.

Unique amphibious aircraft Be-200ES are produced by the Taganrog Aviation Scientific and Technical Complex named after G.M. Beriev of the United Aircraft Corporation. The aircraft have proven their effectiveness in fighting fires in Russia.

The Be-200ES is the world’s only jet amphibious aircraft, which provides undeniable advantages in speed when extinguishing fires. The Be-200ES can take on board up to 12 tons of water. The aircraft has a good performance in terms of the number of water discharges per hour. For one refueling, the aircraft is capable of dropping up to 270 tons of water onto a fire.

Greece previously planned purchase planes, and in 2017 passed conversation about the assembly of the Be-200ES in Greece in the city of Kalamata.

Nevertheless, the negotiations did not produce any intelligible results, and the Greek authorities announced that they would purchase the world’s most expensive Japanese amphibious aircraft ShinMaywa US-2

As a result, it was the price of these planes that became the stumbling block that stopped the deal. Indeed, by that time, the United States and Greece had signed a deal, which it could not refuse. This is about modernization of F16 aircraft worth nearly $ 2.4 billion. Naturally, at such costs it was no longer up to civil aircraft, given that the country’s GDP debt continued to grow.





Source link

Verified by MonsterInsights