Posted on 06/25/2017 4:59:51 PM PDT by Kaslin
The Donald Trump Pentagon, in so many words, is saying that the Obama administration’s decision to waive punitive sanctions and buy combat helicopters from Russia was a bad deal.
The Pentagon’s first congressionally required report on Afghanistan under President Trump says the Russian Mi-17 chopper has proved a failure in the long war and will be phased out in favor of American-made UH-60 Black Hawks.
The Obama administration came to realize the failure in its last weeks in office and stopped the deal.
The report this month on “Enhancing Security and Stability in Afghanistan” marks official confirmation that the Russian model broke down too often for the Afghan air force logistics system to keep up.
“Along with the increased expense and difficulty in maintaining the Mi-17 helicopter fleet, utility helicopters are in high demand and the required maintenance exceeds current capacity and capability, leading to maintenance backlogs and a reduced number of aircraft available,” the Defense Department report said. “Included in the recapitalization effort is an initiative to transition the force away from Russian-made Mi-17 helicopters to more reliable, cost-effective, and easier to sustain U.S.-made UH-60 helicopters.”
The Mi-17 stood as an outlier in President Obama’s economic-sanction-filled assault on the regime of Russian President Vladimir Putin in response to his invasion of eastern Ukraine
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
You are both far too charitable.
I’d practice non-interference: Whatever they have as a weapons system that they themselves have developed, let ‘em keep right on using it. (Plus, of course, insuring that all around you follow the very same rule(s).)
The natives may very well be throwing stones and poking one another with sharp pointed sticks today; If natural selection can still be assumed to work, it shouldn’t take many generations before they’re making their very own Brown Bess’s...or F-22’s...or Tzar Bombe’s and still be “that many generations” behind whatever we’re using.
I’ve just got this thing about keeping an edge on any potential adversary. Or friend, for that matter.
Now just a cotton pickin’ minit. Let’s be fair. The helicopters themselves didn’t have to be hacked, just defective. As for collusion? There was Hillary’s “reset” and the uranium deal, so of course there was collusion, and after colluding with Hillary for years, they decided to screw her over, starting with defective helicopters and continuing through the campaign ‘16. If you’re going to collude, at least do a good job of it.
Bet the manufacturer donated to the Clinton fund
It was Trump you dimwit, he was concluding a hotel deal in Afghanistan and this sealed the deal. He used is blackmail on Hillary to get Obama to agree. I know this because Trump has a twitter follower that is friends with a guy that met at least 1 time 10 years ago in an security checkpoint at an Airport in Brussels who was friends with an employee at a Russian Bank.
No one on this thread seems to care... But there was a reason. On paper the Russian Helicopters were going to be better for the hot and high conditions in Afghanistan. Helicopters have a really hard time there. It is just so hot and so high altitude they can’t generate much lift. So they tried to go with a copter with more lift. Turned out to be unmaintainable. No strange conspiracy theories needed.
Talon, thank you for clarifying.
there you go confusing people with facts.
Til the Afghan pilots can learn not to land in the same spot every time, any helicopters that come into their hands should be considered squandered. smh
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