Article

2021-09-01 Afghanistan

Might of the Taliban Air Force: Islamists now have 48 aircraft including Black Hawks and A-29 attack planes after US retreat left them with more air power than many NATO nations

[Daily Mail, where America gets its news]

Jihadists have seized several major airbases, in Herat, Khost, Kunduz and Mazar-i-Sharif, and Kabul

They have proudly posted pictures of seized $6m Black Hawks and a $14m Hercules transport jet

The Taliban have been hunting for pilots from the disbanded Afghan Air Force to fly the vehicles
Have they, indeed? An opportunity for someone...
Before Kabul fell, planes and helicopters were disabled by US troops, while others were flown overseas

The jihadists have as many as 48 aircraft - it's not clear how many planes or helicopters this breaks down to

This is more aircraft than a third of Nato member states, including: Albania, Bosnia, Estonia, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Slovenia

Posted by Skidmark 2021-09-01 08:40|| || Front Page|| [12 views ] Top

#1 That says more about the North Atlantic Treaty (We'll fight to the last American) Organization than the former Afghan Air Force.

Posted by Procopius2k 2021-09-01 10:06|| 2021-09-01 10:06|| Front Page Top

#2 ...The Blackhawks and the Hercs won't last long at all - they are maintenance-intensive, and though lots of parts may be available on the black market they aren't going to have the trained techs to install those parts. And for that matter, I can almost guarantee that there's not a single Afghan who can do it. The pilots do know how to fly their birds, but not fix 'em. All we've seen is one Blackhawk flying, and a couple of Talibs getting their pics taken in a -130 cockpit, safely on the ground.

The smaller planes - the A-29s - are almost as bad in terms of maintenance. The handful of armed Cessnas might actually be the biggest risk at this point, since they'll stay airborne and theoretically mission capable somewhat longer.

BOTTOM LINE: The Talibs would be better off putting all that hardware up for sale and parts than trying to get it working.

Mike

Posted by Mike Kozlowski 2021-09-01 10:08|| 2021-09-01 10:08|| Front Page Top

#3 Could China tech's figure out the maintenance?

(Or have they already...)

Posted by CrazyFool 2021-09-01 10:44|| 2021-09-01 10:44|| Front Page Top

#4 #3 Could China tech's figure out the maintenance?

(Or have they already...)
Posted by: CrazyFool 2021-09-01 10:44

Chinese techs should be able to keep them running after a while, but like I said, it'll be more trouble than it's worth.

Mike

Posted by Mike Kozlowski 2021-09-01 11:04|| 2021-09-01 11:04|| Front Page Top

#5 Priceless...

Posted by M. Murcek 2021-09-01 13:21|| 2021-09-01 13:21|| Front Page Top

#6 I bet those A-29's keep flying long enough to be mighty helpful against a certain breakaway region. But they won't be much use against (for example) the Pakistani air force.

Posted by Secret Master 2021-09-01 15:03|| 2021-09-01 15:03|| Front Page Top

#7 So what you're saying is...defense contractors deliberately made these aircraft to continually require new parts and thus keep churn going? And this makes them unusable for anyone who's not got connections to the military-industrial complex? I'm not sure how I feel about that. I'm leaning towards "overall bad".

Posted by Blinky Pholuling8616 2021-09-01 15:33|| 2021-09-01 15:33|| Front Page Top

#8 9/11/2021

Ten days away.

Posted by Ebbomoger Speaking for Boskone4589 2021-09-01 15:38|| 2021-09-01 15:38|| Front Page Top

#9 So what you're saying is...defense contractors deliberately made these aircraft to continually require new parts and thus keep churn going?

I've never met a machine that didn't need spare parts.

Posted by Rob Crawford 2021-09-01 19:51|| 2021-09-01 19:51|| Front Page Top

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