US buying Russian helicopters
Washington Post Story
Look for Congress to put pork before common sense. This is like a replay of the A-10 Warthog issue. The A-10 is a very simple, very durable, very inexpensive close support airplane built by the Air Force to provide support for grond troops. It’s main weapon is a a rapid fire cannon, perfect for shooting up a column of troops or tanks. It flies at very low altitude, so is not subject to attack by anti-aircraft missiles, the cabin is heavily reinforced to protect the pilot. It’s not sexy, but it does what it was designed to do. First, Congress wanted to get rid of them, now they’re retrofitting them to do all kinds of things they were never designed to do.
The “exhorbitantly priced” Mi-17 transport helicopter is a a very simple helicopter. It doesn’t have advanced avionics, it doesn’t have defenses against missiles – it’s just a cheap truck that happens to fly, which is good when there are no roads. It was designed to fly in the thinner and colder air of high altitudes.
Afghan pilots are not even able to read their own lanugage, let alone English. Same for the mechanics who will have to fix them. A computer operated weapons system, or an online repair manual is far beyond the capabilities of the people who we are hoping can use these aircraft.
Senator Dodd is one of the people agitating to overrule the military. Sikorksy Helicopter is located in Connecticut.. They make the UH 60 mentioned in the story that costs $15 million each . The Chinook mentioned in the story goes for about $35 million each…
The Mi-17 is a “flying truck”. It lumbers along at 156 mph, and has a range of 600 miles. It can carry about 13,000 pounds of crew and cargo. It can fly up to about 20,000 feet.
The UH60 (Blackhawk) can only carry 2400 pounds on the inside. It can carry about the same weight, but 9000 pounds of that will be hanging from the bottom (not useful for troops)
The Chinook CH-47 is a very different type of aircraft. You’ll remember it from the evacuation of Saigon at the end of the Vietnam war. It has twin rotors and two engines and is a heavy lift helicopter. It is the ideal helicopter for Afghanistan – IF it is being flown and maintained by US forces with unlimited resources for fuel, parts and training, and people capable of using it. It can carry about 50 troops. It is not a “weapons platform”. It has a few machine guns for clearing out a landing zone, but that’s it.
