Posted on 10/10/2014 7:05:25 AM PDT by mykroar
Sixteen military transport planes bought by the United States government for the Afghan Air Force (AAF) at a cost of nearly $500 million were recently destroyed by the Afghan military and sold for scrap parts at around six cents per pound, prompting a government inquiry to determine why millions of taxpayer dollars were wasted on the ill-fated program.
The Department of Defense purchased for the AAF a total of 20 Italian-made G222 military transport planes at a cost of $486 million. However, the fleet was grounded in March 2013 “after sustained, serious performance, maintenance, and spare parts problems” were discovered, according to the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR).
After sitting unused for some time on the tarmac at Kabul International Airport, the Afghan military decided to destroy 16 of the planes and sell the scrap metal for roughly 6 cents per pound, according to SIGAR, which has launched an investigation to determine how such a large amount of taxpayer dollars were wasted on the fleet.
SIGAR had intended to inspect the aircraft as part of its investigation and appears to have been caught off guard by the fleet’s destruction.
(Excerpt) Read more at freebeacon.com ...
You better believe an Obama crony is getting paid somewhere!
Turbo C-123
There is no clean end of the turd known as the middle east for the US to pick up. None. IMO, when the Arabs or whomever say the US should get out of there, it’s the best advice ever given to an infidel.
and the aircraft were purchased from Italy when the USA workers are out of work.
Fix It Again Tony.
We’re destroying all kinds of equipment over there right now. Due to the arbitrary, close-in deadline for us to evacuate Afghanistan, we held a sale of equipment deemed too expensive to haul back to the States. Since everyone knew of our deadline, the sales that took place were last-second to get a deal on the equipment. Everything else we’re destroying in place.
The Department of Defense purchased for the AAF a total of 20 Italian-made G222 military transport planes at a cost of $486 million.
...
Who was the crony that acted as the middleman?
That was my first thought as well. Somehow an Obama bundler made a bundle on the original deal. I’d bet on it. It’s become SOP for this administration.
The article leaves out many facts, makes incorrect assumptions, obviously not written by someone with any aviation knowledge.
Lockheed policy is to eliminate the C-27
C27 Spartan is based on G222 frame, so this is a decent aircraft. The article doesn’t make it clear but probably Kabul “government” couldn’t afford maintenance costs... But obviously If that was the case, they should give them back, I’m sure they could be sold elsewhere for ~400 million.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.