Indian Defence Ministry officially stated its decision on issue a new helicopter tender in April 2008, several months after the $600 million programme on buying and licence-producing 197 Eurocopter AS550C3 helicopters for the Indian Army Aviation had been cancelled in December 2007 (60 machines were to be imported, with the rest to be licence-produced by India’s HAL corporation). The Indian military’s requirement for advanced light helicopters have now been estimated at 384 units, of which 259 are to be received by the Army Aviation and 125 top go to IAF, with the offsets hiking to 50 per cent. A considerable part of the helicopters is to be licence-produced by HAL. Requests for proposals for this tender were issued to Eurocopter, Bell Textron, MD Helicopters, AgustaWestland and Kamov who offered their AS550, Bell 407, MD520N, A109 (A119) and Ka-226T models respectively. The final decision on the winner is slated to be taken this year after comparison tests of all the helicopters offered for the tender.

Kamov joins the tender as a division of the Russian Helicopters holding company, pitching its upgraded Ka-226T helicopter that differs from the earlier Ka-226 model in being powered by Turbomeca Arrius 2G1 engines. The engines boost the machine’s performance, especially when operating in the ‘high and hot’ environment. A prototype Ka-226T was re-engined with Turbomeca Arrius as far back as late 2004. The prototype’s tests have displayed a considerable improvement in its flight characteristics. In 2009–2010 several more prototypes were built, one of which took place in special tests in India early last year.

To implement the programme, Russian Helicopters is launching the Ka-226T large-series production on the premises of another of its subsidiaries, the Kumertau Aircraft Production Plant (KumAPP). To this end, Vnesheconombank in September 2008 issued it a $95 million loan. The measures being taken may result already by late 2011 in KumAPP churning out up to 70 Ka-226s annually, including at least 50 Ka-226Ts.