Uzbekistan's military has shown off several European-made helicopters it apparently bought from Airbus, a deal that had been under threat because of German concerns about Uzbekistan's human rights record.
The helicopters, AS 332 Super Pumas and AS 350 Ecureils, both produced by the company Airbus Helicopters, were shown in a promotional video about the Uzbekistan armed forces posted in February but just noticed recently by the Russian military blog BMPD. (The video is below, and the helicopters are shown starting at about 2:00.)
In 2014, an Airbus executive said that a deal to sell 14 military helicopters to Uzbekistan was being held up because Germany, which produces parts for the helicopter, was refusing to allow the export due to concerns about human rights and the rule of law in Uzbekistan. Exactly what helicopters were under consideration was not made public, so it's not clear that this is the same deal, and if so, what changed between 2014 and now. "Airbus Helicopters is not at liberty to discuss about contractual commitments it may or may not have with Uzbekistan," a company spokesman told The Bug Pit in an emailed response to questions.
Both the AS 332 and AS350 are transport helicopters, and in the video, Uzbekistan soldiers are shown rappelling out of the AS350 on to a rooftop and filing out, with weapons drawn, of the AS 332, suggesting that Uzbekistan sees these as means for deploying small groups of soldiers into combat.
This would be the second recent acquisition of European military aircraft by Uzbekistan: last summer, Airbus C295W transport airplanes were spotted painted in Uzbekistan livery. Also in that case, Airbus declined to comment. The European Union imposed an arms embargo on Uzbekistan in 2005 in response to the massacre of protesters in the city of Andijan, but those sanctions were lifted in 2009.
Joshua Kucera, a senior correspondent, is Eurasianet's former Turkey/Caucasus editor and has written for the site since 2007.
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