Poor Canucks still waiting for Chinook delivery, will make do leasing old Russian Mi-8 helos.
Mi-8 is a large twin-turbine transport helicopter that can also act as a gunship. Nato reporting name is Hip. Crew two pilots and one engineer. Capacity - 24 troops. (Kandahar airfield)
To see Photo operations of these Mi-8 Helicopters please go to
linkhttp://www.ruswar.com/air.htm
Once again Canada's military personnel are faced with a stop gap operation till delivery of the infamous Chinook.
Canada to lease Russian choppers for Afghan mission Deal is for eight helicopters to ferry supplies
Canada will lease up to eight Russian-built helicopters to ferry supplies around the battlefield in Afghanistan until it gets new U.S. choppers, says Defence Minister Peter MacKay. It is a stopgap measure meant to get Canadian army supply convoys off the bomb-laced roads of Kandahar, where explosives have been taking an increasingly deadly toll. Securing helicopter transport was a principal condition of the Manley commission report last winter and a key caveat of Parliament's extension of the combat mission until 2011. The Conservative government was given until February 2009 to come up with the helicopters and a flight of unmanned surveillance planes. A $375 million deal to acquire six CH-47-D Chinook's from the U.S. Army has been worked out, but those heavy-lift aircraft will not arrive until late this year - or early next. In the meantime, MacKay said the Defence Department has worked out a lease involving six to eight Russian-made Mi-8 choppers. The former Soviet-era helicopters have similar capacity to a Chinook, MacKay told reporters Wednesday heading into the Conservative caucus summer retreat in Levis, Que. So they're heavy-lift . . . They'll be used to transport materials along the same routes, performing much the same purpose (as) the Chinooks would. The Mi-8s are in fact considered a medium-lift helicopter and date back in their original design to the 1960s. They were a familiar sight in the skies of Afghanistan during the Soviet occupation. MacKay would not say what former Soviet Bloc country - or private company - would provide the aircraft, nor was the cost of the lease made public. An official in the minister's office said a detailed formal announcement will be made next week. The NATO mission in Afghanistan has suffered from a chronic shortage of troop and supply helicopter support. The military alliance was put in the embarrassing position late last year of approving the lease of private helicopters and fixed-wing planes for supply missions at remote desert and mountain-top bases. Member countries were unwilling to risk their own aircraft and crews on perilous missions.
This is what we are waiting for >>>>>>>>>>
In my personal experience I have rented former soviet helicopters while working in Baku as well as utilising leased Heavy lift Tupolovs for equipment and supply movement. These aircraft were on the whole poorly maintained. Lets hope for the best for our troop leases.
Please support our Troops and let your MP know that equipment is absolutely imperative to carry out their jobs.
Nil Sine Labore
Robby
