Questions Over $1 Billion U.S. Purchase Of Russian Helicopters For Afghan Military

By RICHARD LARDNER 12/07/13 07:55 AM ET EST
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WASHINGTON (AP) — The deal looked sketchy from the start.

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 Department of Defense 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.

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.

Lawmakers who were following the copter deal were stunned.


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More:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/...kushpmg00000037

Diplomacy is about surviving until the next century - politics is about surviving until Friday afternoon
Sir Humphrey Appleby

ולמי שתוהה, בתמונה מופיע mi-17 של הצבא הפקיסטני והקוביה על גג הקוקפיט היא מסנן אוויר אמריקאי מסוג Centrisep EAPS.