Posted on 05/27/2011 6:17:19 PM PDT by Pan_Yan
“The US is buying these helos FOR THE AFGHAN MILITARY”
Yeah, my thought as well. We’ll sell them to the Afghans when we walk. In the mean time, I can see them sporting a Paki paint job for our special-ops boys.
Well, it was a ‘cause’ of a spoiled socialite with too much time on her hands. Which is why our politicians should not listen to people with too much time on their hands.
As someone with exposure to a mil-spec aviation supply house, it is all about cost benefit analysis and risk. Because of all this red tape they are really risk adverse.
Add to this one component you forgot, they might want to dual source the design i.e. also get it FAA certified with a Type Certificate and Production Type Certificate. This is brutally expensive and time consuming.
With that said, is their any question why their isn't a plethora of designs for the various market niches?
It was less 50 years ago now, a firm like Mooney Aircraft was willing to try ( and it failed, they only sold something like 22 of them, it was ahead of it's time) a large 6 seater single that was pressurized, "The Mustang". No one has the capital, or quite frankly the b@lls to try something like that today given the regulatory environment. And they wonder why we don't "make" things here anymore...
Russian attack helicopters appear to be better than ours at this point.
If it wasn’t for Igor Sikorsky immigrating to the United States from Russia in 1919. We would’n have what we have now.
Exactly why do we need this Russian helicopter?
So you’re telling me the US Army speced and bought helicopters that did not take into account high altitude missions? As I recall, the Blackhawk was delivered during the Russian occupation of Afghanistan. And why were they in Afghanistan? Two words: Oil and gas. I find it difficult to believe the Blackhawk has no high level capability—or could not be retrofitted as appropriate.
I have also read the Hind is a high maintenance aircraft. How does the Blackhawk stack up?
Just as Onada has made the US dependent on Russian rockets to get into space, it appears to me he is deliberately trying to destroy American helicopter producers. Onada cannot be a traitor because he is not an American citizen. But he can and should be tried for espionage and sabotage.
Talk about outsourcing and killing American jobs—it doesn’t get more blatent than this.
Thoughts anyone?
If it wasn’t for Igor Sikorsky immigrating to the United States from Russia in 1919. We would’n have what we have now.
Thanks Pan_Yan. And to think I used to believe that Central Asia was pretty dull.
Let’s see... India and Russia, which are traditional allies, are now collaborating with the US in the Afghanistan theater.
Russia’s helping Iran build its nuke programs (both for energy and weapons) and Obama’s not doing anything significant about either.
China wants close ties with the pseudostate of Pakistan, realizing perhaps too late that they’re at risk.
The Taliban wants to seize Pakistan and its nukes, and Islamofascists are already operating in western China.
And you didn’t even mention the former Soviet Union -stan states.
They are ordered for Afghan forces, In my opinion It's a very good decision. Afghan army used to operate similar equipment, they are also easier to maintain, which is particularly important in a country, where anyone able to write and read is regarded as educated, also It is a good PR move making them look independent... Additionally, there's a risk that sooner or later some of this equipment will be taken over by the enemy. Iraqi and Afghan armies should generally be equipped with AK-47s, T-72s, Mi-17s etc. (although a lot of that doesn't have to be bought in Russia) . I rather find sales of Abrams tanks to Irag to be more controversial.
“Russian maintenance is as good as any when they are getting paid.”
You need to keep ‘em sober too which can be tricky when they like drinking the fuel.
http://rt.com/news/russian-engineers-died-methanol/
http://www.hark.com/clips/tdssxdzmwr-woody-laughing
There is no word in Russian for "Maintenance." However, they have invented a universal, all purpose repair fluid for their maintenance personnel to use on a minute-to-minute basis. It is called "Vodka." Some of those personnel have completed a shift without an accident, but not many. Just check out their scars, teeth, and missing digits.
Parts? No problem, comrade! That is what wrecks are for. Besides, comrades, if you really need spares, buy two helicopters.
The really interesting Russki helos to me are the Kamev Twin rotor jobs. Awesome performance. We got Sikorsky and Piasecki, we could have traded for Kamev.
Charlie Wilson = Laurence of Arabia?
Nonsense. I was a manufacturing engineer in military procurement. The number one reason for the cost of MIL-SPEC products is paperwork, whether traceability, safety, documentation, qualification testing, backward revision capability... It's an absolutely insane system. Actual production are NOTHING by comparison, which is why it really does cost hundreds of dollars to sell them a hammer.
Oh, and by the way, we were non-union.
Just 3 a month? That’s it? That’s nothing for the population of former Soviet Union back in the ‘80s which numbered over 300 million.
Afghanistan was to Vietnam was Vietnam was to WWII. Relative to Afghanistan, the amount of fighting was an order of magnitude higher in Vietnam. The fact that the Soviets could only deploy 100K men in Afghanistan vs our 500K in Vietnam says that the Soviet economy was staggering like a punch-drunk boxer. Whether this was the weight of subsidizing basket case client states like Cuba, South Yemen and Angola or the accumulated rot of 60 years of Bolshevik rule, the Soviet economy was not up to task of supporting even a small scale war like Afghanistan. My guess is that if they had launched a conventional war against the West, Soviet units would have been annihilated.
The part that’s truly incredible is that the San Diego is 8000 miles away from Saigon, whereas Afghanistan is right across the border from what was the Soviet Union. And yet we were able to put 500K men in Vietnam and feed them ice cream and turkey, whereas the Soviets had difficulty providing their Afghan-deployed force basic medical care. Disease rates for Afghan-deployed Red Army units soared to the extent that the units actually available for combat were a fraction of the deployed force.
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