An institutional visit to Algeria concluded yesterday during which the secretary general of defense and national director of armaments, army corps general Luciano Portolano, met his Algerian counterpart, major general Mohamed Salah Benbicha.
As part of this visit, a delegation made up of Segredifesa and Leonardo representatives, respectively led by General Portolano and by Dr. Pasquale Di Bartolomeo, went to the industrial site of Setif, headquarters of joint Venture between Leonardo and EPIC/EDIA.
The occasion made it possible to give a further impulse so that all the conditions necessary to make the joint Venture and move on to the industrial phase of helicopter assembly. In particular, contingencies have been created to speed up the times for the signing of ancillary agreements and the order of the first 7 AW139 helicopters out of the 70 total (of which 53 for the Algerian market).
The Algerian counterpart confirmed the progress of the negotiation and that the Algerian Ministry of Defense itself has already allocated the financial resources to ensure industrial sustainability in the coming years.
General Portolano underlined how, also in this case, the synergy between the Ministry of Defense and Italian industry represents an example of the efficiency of the country's defense system.
