Posted on 08/19/2021 6:44:20 PM PDT by Sequoyah101
They'd better have been upgraded to state of the art defensive systems.
If our economy and security depend on that god-forsaken country, then we’re in worse shape than I thought.
Taliban seizes $6,000,000 US Blackhawk helicopters
AUG 15, 2021 12:00 PM BY ROBERT SPENCER
32 COMMENTS
All of this was preventable, but the U.S. military was too busy making sure all its troops were woke and reliably Leftist.
“Air Taliban: Fighters seize $6million US Blackhawk helicopters alongside tons of American equipment – while taking to the skies in captured Russian choppers as advance approaches outskirts of Kabul,” by Tom Pyman, MailOnline, August 14, 2021:
Taliban fighters today seized $6million US Blackhawk helicopters alongside tons of American equipment as they took to the skies in captured Russian choppers amid their advance through Afghanistan.
A series of videos being shared on social media show insurgents flying the Kremlin-made mi-17 aircraft around the city of Kandahar, with concerns continuing to grow over the militants’ ongoing grab for power.
Even more seismic, however, is the evidence that the Taliban have also seized American-made Blackhawk helicopters, made famous in the 2001 Ridley Scott blockbuster.
The Afghan government pilots who fly the operational Russian helicopters have been turned to the Taliban, while the US helicopters are likely to be grounded by a lack of spare parts from the United States.
The White House has spent billions of dollars on supplying the Afghan military with the necessary weapons and equipment to wipe out the Taliban, but following the collapse of local armed forces, their investment is now effectively being used by the insurgents themselves as they bid to control more and more major cities.
Social media in recent days has been awash with clips of fighters seizing weapons caches, but the taking of such high profile helicopters represents a significant statement of intent
https://www.jihadwatch.org/2021/08/taliban-seizes-6000000-us-blackhawk-helicopters
https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RR100/RR141z1/RAND_RR141z1.pdf
Not to worry.
August 18, 2021
Nancy says that the 130 U.S. Blackhawk helicopters now in the hands of the Taliban is- “just some stuff”.
Pelosi on Taliban Getting Military Equipment: ‘Some Stuff’ Gets Left When You Withdraw, Biden’s Withdrawal Reduces Chance of Terrorism
During an interview with San Francisco’s KPIX on Tuesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) responded to concerns that military equipment falling into the hands of the Taliban might increase the likelihood of future terrorism by stating that President Joe Biden’s decision to withdraw “was based on one that reduced the prospect of any attack” on the U.S., Biden has threatened the Taliban if they attack the U.S., and that when you withdraw, “some stuff, some equipment is left there.”
Pelosi said, “I do believe that the president’s decision was based on one that reduced the prospect of any attack on our homeland. And the president has made it very clear to the Taliban, any assault on any American entity or person would be met forcefully. So, the — this is what happens when you withdraw. You — some stuff, some equipment is left there. It was thought that that would be used — it was hoped that that would be used by the Afghan military to defend its own country. The fact that it did not and could not was all more the reason for us to leave.”
The above said, almost nothing about how this exit was made makes any sense. It’s possibly the most breathtaking example of incompetency I’ve ever seen, and that’s saying something.
East or west coast?
Did each of the bastards in the State Dept each pay for these choppers out of their own pockets? WTF?
The American taxpayers paid for those choppers and we should decide when they’re handed over to our enemies, ya think?
Clean out 95% of the federal agencies and start over.
Damn, we could sure use those CH-46E Sea Knights here in the west to fight the ubiquitous forest fires. What an effing waste.
Where is the GOP? Why aren’t they admonishing and calling for impeachment seeing what this administration has done? The dirty Dems did nothing but belittle and spaz out over every little thing Trump said or did as we all know. Yet our party is not all over this debacle?!
While your post has many good points, have you noticed the $30 trillion national debt? Yeah. The government hasn’t cared about cost or value for a long time. The taxpayer has been raped for a long time. The US Constitution hasn’t been worth the paper it is printed on, for a long time. These thing’s aren’t new.
The decline and fall of the United States has been a long time coming, brought to you by the Enemies Within.
I also am just trying to ride out the current decline. Prayers up for future generations of Americans, who will only know totalitarian oppression and related suffering.
Could Taliban compel US-trained Afghans to fly them against insurgents among the Northern Aliance?
I’m completely aware of thee things to the point that I don’t believe there will be future generations of Americans for very long. Not long at all.
They weren’t flown in under their own power. They were transported their by heavy lift aircraft. To be specific, usually contracted heavy lift Russian aircraft.
To remove them, they would have had to contract a large commercially available transport, loaded 1 or 2 at a time, and removed them.
Honest, those helicopters were end of life. The UH-60’s were brought in over the last 4 years to replace them for the state department. Probably cheaper, for the American people, to thermite grenade them in place, than to pay to fly them out and scrap them anyway.
The CH-46 usually has only one or two door/window guns and possibly one on the ramp. Not exactly a gunship. It is a medium troop transport for up to 25 pax. It is also great for either interna cargo or sling loads.
The only way the Taliban could compel a pilot would be by holding his family hostage. Sticking a gun to the head of the guy flying the helo you are also in is not a great idea. You would get your 72 virgins only a few seconds after you shot your pilot. IOW, he gets "First Dibs".
And NO, Microsoft Flight Simulator will not prepare you to fly a helicopter.
;-)
“East or west coast?”
I was mostly CH-53D with HMH-461, New River, 1974-78, with time away for a FAC/ALO tour with 3/4 in WestPac and 6 months on the USMC Orienteering Team. (while at Quantico doing Orienteering, I got a few hours with HMX-1, though no White Tops - kool!)
Going through HMT-204 after P’cola, flight time was really scarce - no money - so I grabbed anything I could including the -46 time.
Very nice in the hover and it stopped WAY quicker than the Hogs. This was after they had stopped using Hover Aft. No fun having the aft 1/3 of the bird depart the pattern!
Where/when did you fly Frogs? (IIRC, we always spelled it that way, not “Phrog”
There are three known large deposits of the rare earth minerals in the world, elements on which our whole electronics industry depends, Greenland, Afghanistan, and China. China can shut down the rest of the world’s modern tech development at whim because we refused to take advantage of our ability to access and control those elements in Afghanistan while we occupied the place. And we did NOT have to insist on “civilizing” the uncivilizable Afghanis, just defend perimeters around Bagram and mining operations. Now we have turned that other easily accessible source of rare earths to China. China will replace us in Afghanistan and do it successfully. The Chinese will not hesitate to totally depopulate the country if hat is what it takes. American squeamishness should have kept us totally out of the area. Our technology now is thoroughly dependent on the favor of the Chinese emperor Xi.
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