North African states including Algeria, Sudan, libya, Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco represent prospective markets for all global helicopter manufacturers.

The reason for this is the ability of these countries to pay on contracts — most of them are major energy suppliers and possess considerable volumes of currency in their budgets. Besides, the topography of the countries to the north of Sahara, existing transport infrastructure, the necessity of logistical support for extracting industries create conditions for a wide use of helicopters.

Additionally, political destabilization in the region in recent years further increased the demand for military helicopters.

Unfortunately, a number of North African countries essentially lost their sovereignty due to external factors, and the prospects of collaboration with them are quite dim.

Climate conditionsin North Africa are ratherspecific and impose certain additional requirements on helicopters. A big part of North Africa is covered by Sahara with its hot dry climate and a big temperature shifts between day and night. Frequentsandstorms are also characteristic of thisregion. To the south of Sahara lies an area of drylands, Sahel, with its semi-deserts and dry savannas. The coastalstripe near the Mediterranean Sea is characterized by air rich in salts.

In view of this, helicopters operated in North Africa should be highly reliable, withstand constant exposure to hot air and sand, as well as to salty sea air, be easy in operation and ensure a high level of autonomous operation.

Russian-made helicopters — due to their design features, technical solutions and operating experience in different countries and in various climatic conditions — are ideal for North African countries.

deal for North African countries. Among main competitive advantages of the Russianmade helicopters in this region are: simplicity of operation, ability to perform a wide range of tasks, reparability, autonomous deployment, etc.

RUSSIAN HElICoPTERS № 1 (27) / 2016