state government plans
German-Russian helicopters were to be built in Rostock
06/11/2023, 2:17 p.m
According to a media report, a subsidiary of Russian Helicopters and an Airbus supplier are to develop a drone and a helicopter five years ago. Manuela Schwesig personally campaigned for its production. The state government emphasizes that it was not about armaments projects.
In 2018, the state government of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania pursued plans to build a helicopter plant in Rostock together with Russia. The partners in the cooperation were the Airbus supplier Luratec AG in Rostock and the Russian company VR Technologies, a subsidiary of Russian Helicopters, reported the “Welt am Sonntag”. Accordingly, an unmanned drone and a light passenger helicopter should be developed.
According to “Welt” information, Russian Helicopters belongs to Rostec, a Russian state-owned defense industry holding. The head of the conglomerate is Sergey Chemezov, whom the EU referred to as a Putin confidant after the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and put on its sanctions list. The newspaper quoted from a paper by the State Chancellery, according to which “civilian unmanned small helicopters will be produced in MV together with Russian companies by 2020”.
In 2017, the then CDU-led Ministry of Economic Affairs granted Luratec 100,000 euros from the “European Fund for Regional Development” for a study on the development and approval of the drone. However, the plans were put on hold, instead VR Technologies developed the VRT-300 drone with the support of the Rostock company.
State government calls report “grossly distorting”
During a trip to Moscow in 2018, Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig personally spoke to the Russian Industry Minister Denis Manturow about the production of a passenger helicopter in Rostock. The plans for series production of components would have lasted until March 2021. After the meeting with Manturov in early November 2018, the state government announced that the Russian side was very interested in wind energy.
A government spokesman in Schwerin described the report as “grossly distorting”: “We reject the allegation that the state government in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania directly or indirectly promoted Russian military projects and was involved in the construction of helicopters for Putin.” At no time did the state government talk about armament projects with Russia, nor did they promote or promote them.
At the same time, spokesman Andreas Timm confirmed that the state government had supported companies in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania that wanted to set up civil cooperation projects with Russia. “There was hope of building a production facility for civil helicopters or their components in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and thus being able to gain jobs,” said a press release.