Even SkyNews in the UK is caught up in the silliness of the anti F-35 paranoia. Check out this article...its a blurb on the Tanker deal but they use illustrations of the F-35 in the story. Amazing!
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Well, the F-25 tag attracts attention.....In a story not related to this, i've read that recently Gates declared that the US will buy Russian MI-17 helicopters to be used in A-stan. I find this to be hilarious, in case it's not just a joke.
ReplyDeletewheres the link sol?
ReplyDeleteAlex, they are buying MI-17's on behalf of the Afghan air corps. They fly them and then train the Afghans to fly and maintain them (most Afghani pilots learnt to fly during the Soviet occupation) on their own. The US has done it before, as has the UK.
ReplyDeleteGrim, the MI-17 was used extensively in the Soviet War in Afghanistan because it suited the terrain there. This is where the irony comes in place: the Afghans used to shoot down these birds with American Stingers.
ReplyDeleteAnother question arises: why buy from the Russians when other eastern countries can provide Soviet technology? And why not go for a different technology if they are in the training phase? It's a time factor or what? They haven't done the same with Iraq for example, those guys to where used to fight with mainly soviet style weapons.
@ Alex - The big reason to buy MI-17 is maintenance. The Afghans have already gotten used to handling these beasts and they aren't too complicated in any case. Western machines require so truly complex skills and expensive parts, both which make them unattractive for a country whose GDP couldn't support a Kaiser Permanente Hospital, let alone a helicopter battalion.
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