US Army / 1st Lt. Veronica Aguila
Washington Times: After Obama’s bad deal, American Black Hawks will replace Russian helicopters for Afghan air force
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.
Read more ....
WNU editor: A bad procurement decision. not the first .... nor will it be the last. But in all fairness to the Obama administration, the Pentagon originally loved the helicopter .... Russian Mi-17 Helicopter ‘Game Changer’ for Afghan Forces: US General (Sputnik).
3 comments:
This decision is based on political (and money) and not military wills. The Mi-17 is a perfectly capable helicopter not only for ANA but for any country/military in the globe, and even that the Obama deal to buy them was mainly meant purchase from Russia, but other, even NATO and ME countries were involved in the process (origin, upgrading, training), so the money was shared between all parties. With this recent decision, all of it will simply go to Sikorsky, end of story.
The same bussiness model is happening in the post-Soviet countries of NATO, because of the replacement of the old military equipments. But it really damages any military when the equipments are choosen by bussiness/political will, instead of the equipments realy capabilities and values. I like the UH-60, I really do, but it's was designed to be a different type of helicopter than what the Mi-17 is, and depending on the military's needs sometimes this other times those suit better, but I think the Mi17 still has a more important and unique role. Also not so long ago the UH-60V made it's first flight, and so far it looks as it's features worth to upgrade the already existing variants, which you know what it means, money.
At the end there is nothing wrong with this decision, totally understandable, but blaming it on the equipment or saying that the Afghan Air Force's logistic will work better because of a model changes is ridiculous.
I hope they have a kill switch or a self destruct device when the Taliban, I mean Afghan pilots turn them on the Americans Troops.
They dont need a "kill switch",
Like the C-27 Spartan's, they'll be in the scrap heap in a few years,
http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/c-27as-for-the-afghan-air-force-05094/
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