Good information never knew , why people went for these and not land based choppers on ships
However in Pakistan's case if we have no options I think we would be ok to maintain these choppers with wash down and cover ups at sea bound ships, a simple plastic cover sheet over blades and engine should be enough for accidental splash of sea water
The whole folding the blades perhaps seems nice idea for Air craft carriers which we don't have to begin with
99% of times sea water would not be hitting the chopper anyways as sea is relatively calm
If we have no choice , I say put more MI-35 calibre choppers as mandatory aviation choppers for Navy
-Accidental splash of sea water is not just it bro, salty winds can cause a lot of problems and is infact the main problems. If you visit to homes next to seas, you'll find pretty much everything, from television sets to automobiles, rusty. Salty winds from seas are a major concern even for custom built maritime helicopters, let alone ordinary ones.
So simply covering the helis won't work
Folding of helicopter blades isn't a nice idea for aircraft carriers only, but for pretty much any naval platform. Interestingly, an aircraft carrier is where you can "live without" folding blades, cause they can afford to have more space, whereas in other naval platforms, that isn't the case. The helicopter deck and hangar are the most spacious space in these vessels. So folding blades are mandatory.
-Another important characteristic of Naval helicopter is a strengthened undercarriage. A ship in a sea is not a stationary platform, it can move up and down. The helicopter must withstand the impact of a helipad hitting against it. So we are looking at a major structural redesign here
-An another problem with the Mi-17/8 and Mi-35 helis are, with a load in them, they cannot take off without taxing. This is a total no-go for Naval helis.
-Most basic issue is that, Mi-17/8 won't simply fit into your ships! The rotor diameters are atleast 3 meters greater for the Hips than the Sea Kings.
