Posted on 12/13/2013 3:34:52 AM PST by lowbridge
To outfit Afghanistan’s security forces with new helicopters, the Pentagon bypassed U.S. companies and turned instead to Moscow for dozens of Russian Mi-17 rotorcraft at a cost of more than $1 billion.
Senior Pentagon officials assured skeptical members of Congress that the Defense Department had made the right call. They repeatedly cited a top-secret 2010 study they said named the Mi-17 as the superior choice.
Turns out the study told a very different story, according to unclassified excerpts obtained by The Associated Press.
An American-made helicopter, the U.S. Army’s workhorse Chinook built by Boeing in Pennsylvania, was found to be “the most cost-effective single platform type fleet for the Afghan Air Force over a twenty year” period, according to the excerpts.
However, Boeing is on the outs with the hard left for standing up to unions. Obama has even used his Marxist National Labor Relations Board to prevent the company from opening new facilities.
The 63 Mi-17s are being acquired through a contract that was awarded without competition to Russia’s notoriously corrupt arms export agency Rosoboronexport.
(Excerpt) Read more at rightwingnews.com ...
Has congress authorized the money? He can’t spend billy willy.
We’re going to pay for them anyway so I guess the question is which would you rather see turned over to the Taliban; Chinooks or Mils?
Truthfully, Russian built gear is of lower quality, but it has a reputation for ease of use and maintenance, and being armored, tough enough to take a lot of hits.
The safety briefing on a Chinook, however, is straightforward. “If you smell a funny smell, it is hydraulic fluid, and we are all going to die.” Every time you fly a Chinook it is going to need maintenance.
Add to this that Russian helicopters and parts are readily available in the region, and that Afghans are going to be flying and fixing the things, and I would say 90% of the time to buy Russian.
F the Afghans...let them pay for their own hardware. Get us out.
FUBO
Travis, those are contractor IPs being checked out in the Mi 17 in FL prior to deployment to Afghanistan to train Afghan army pilots.
a billion here, a billion there...
Still cheaper than opening Boeing’s CH-47 production line and the associated logistical trail required to maintain them. The larger question remains why we are deliberately wasting blood and treasure in that black hole at all. There certainly isn’t any plan for US victory there. Apologies, defeat and surrender are Obama’s signature moves. Our troops are paying a terrible price for his agenda.
That’s also a very plausible story, one to add to the rest. Probably true, along with others. That’s how CIA “proprietary” fronts work. I remember “Southern Air Transport” operating out of a back part of the Fort Lauderdale airport. That was part of the contra era, hell, maybe it’s still operating under a new name.
True, they are still operating under “new management” for the same alphabet entity. Same game, different clients and missions.
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