Why Is the US Buying Russian Arms?
To equip Afghanistan, Iraq, and...Pakistan, of course!
The Obama administration's recent lifting of sanctions against Russia's state arms exporter could boost orders for Russian aircraft from a somewhat-unexpected customer: the U.S. military. As part of its effort to equip the militaries of Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan, the Pentagon has in recent years been snapping up helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft from the arsenals of its former Cold War rivals, including Russia. The goal is to help the three countries build air forces that are rugged, affordable and easy to operate. [...] But [...] U.S. lawmakers are complaining about a lack of oversight of the procurement process and asking the military to consider buying more American-made aircraft.
If there's really no alternative, so be it. But the deal hardly seems like a win/win. And one wonders who lacked the foresight to see this one coming.
- Comment (2)
- · Quote
- · UnfollowFollow (1)
Comments :
Jun '10
Re: Why Is the US Buying Russian Arms?
When high-tech equipment, like a helicopter, gets more complex, the maintenance gets more complex, gets more expensive, and that might be the problem they're trying to avoid. If they have nobody qualified to repair it when it breaks, it's not worth much.
May '10
Re: Why Is the US Buying Russian Arms?
This is a very bad situation, and reflects TVG's twisted view of national insecurity. Under every previous president, we pushed to have our systems adopted, because that:
1) Made logistics sup;port (maintenance) far easier and cheaper, more supportable, higher MTBF (reliability)
2) Improved training
3) Increased the ties and cooperation between US and foreign military
4) Made the other parties more accountable to us and sensitive of US interests.
For example, a primary reason that we have been able to keep a modicum of influence in Saudi Arabia (and cooperation on oil prices and supply) is because their equipment has all been US, which increases interoperability and convergant goals. When the aircrafdt are Russian, the quality of the bird is bad and they suck up to Russia for parts/service support/military training.
Of course, if your goal is to remove US military from the world stage because we should not be powerful any longer, this is what you promote under the guise of internationalism.