Without maintenance, the helicopter fleet will quickly become unusable
Kubinka (Moscow region). August 25. INTERFAX-The fleet of more than a hundred Russian-made helicopters delivered to Afghanistan will quickly become unusable without service and repair, the head of Rosoboronexport, Alexander Mikheev, told Interfax.
"The helicopter fleet there is large - more than 100 Mi-17 helicopters of various types. Of course, this fleet requires repair, maintenance, and the supply of spare parts, " said Mikheev, who previously headed the Russian Helicopters holding company.
According to him, Afghan helicopters can already "stand on the ground", since it depends not only on the age, but also on the raid on these machines.
"As soon as the presence of the engineering and technical service ceases, the equipment will immediately be, according to our Russian regulations, not flying," Mikheev said.
The Taliban (the Taliban movement is recognized as a terrorist and banned in the Russian Federation) entered Kabul on August 15 and declared that they had liberated Afghanistan and considered the war over. Before that, against the background of the withdrawal of US troops and their allies from Afghanistan, the Taliban conducted a large-scale offensive against the Afghan government forces.
Last Tuesday, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that he sees a threat in the huge number of weapons that have fallen into the hands of the Taliban.
"The first real threat is that the Taliban got a huge amount of weapons. These are hundreds of barrels, hundreds of armored vehicles, planes, helicopters. There are more than a hundred MANPADS systems alone, " Shoigu said, answering a question from Interfax.
At the same time, he stressed that "no one controls this."
