old iron wrote:
Do we know for sure that this helicopter has been disabled? Seems like they have a lot of these flying back and forth.
For what it's worth, General McKenzie just stated in a Pentagon press conference:
Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr. wrote:
On the ramp at [Hamid Karzai International Airport] are a total of 73 aircraft. Those aircraft will never fly again - when we left. They'll never be able to be operated by anyone. Most of them were non-mission capable to begin with, but certainly they'll never be able to be flown again.
So maybe another case of
Syrian airfield decoys in 50 years? Maybe a possibility for the repeat of the export of Iraqi Sea Furies in the future? I do have to wonder how extensively they were sabotaged as well. (a la Iranian AIM-54s)
sandiego89 wrote:
marine air wrote:
I thought the same thing. Why wouldn't they fly it out to Pakistan or Tajikstan, Turkmenistan? Those countries are still our allies. Isn't the helicopter still worth several million dollars?
Several articles have indicated the CH-46's were disabled as the crews walked away to catch a C-17 out of there. I think there has been some of the usual confusion between spotting CH-46's and CH-47's on the news, the two have been confused with each other for decades. I have seen clips with both 46's and 47's.
I think the time was numbered for the CH-46's, even with their rehab, they were getting tired, and like countless other vehicles, MRAP's and gear, simply abandoned. I do hope and imagine that the CH-47's were flown out. I do note many Afghani AF fixed and rotary wing aircraft did fly out to the North.
For what it's worth, a total of 46 former Afghan Air Force aircraft are reported have flown to Uzbekistan. This includes 24 helicopters and 22 fixed wing aircraft.
[1] However, none of these were CH-46s.
[2] I was trying to think of some historic parallels, and the case of the approximately 137 Iraqi aircraft that fled to Iran in 1991 was the best I could come up with.
[3] The only somewhat similar circumstance I can think of off the top of my head is the 5 RH-53Ds Iran captured after Operation Eagle Claw.
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