Article

2008-06-19 India-Pakistan

U.S. helicopter engines stolen en route to Pakistan port

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Posted by tu3031 2008-06-19 11:03|| || Front Page|| [11129 views ] Top
File under: Taliban

#1 Put bombs with GPS units in the shipping cartons. If the cartons leave the permitted route or go AWOL the cartons should commit suicide.

Something like a chopper engine should have the equiv. of a 2000lb bomb in plastic explosives around it.

Posted by 3dc 2008-06-19 11:12|| 2008-06-19 11:12|| Front Page Top

#2 Oh, and make tampering with the carton set the bomb off too!

Posted by 3dc 2008-06-19 11:13|| 2008-06-19 11:13|| Front Page Top

#3 Uhm, something makes no sense here. Helicopter engines will fit easily in a C-17 or even carried by a CH-47. As these supply routes have never been secure, anything sent by that route would be known to be subject to hijack.

I am not sure how much stock I put in this story. Any shipping any supplies on this route that you don't want to fall in enemy hands should lose their job.

Posted by crosspatch 2008-06-19 12:27|| 2008-06-19 12:27|| Front Page Top

#4 Where is my Karachi-Kabul superhighway?! Would be done by now.

Posted by swksvolFF 2008-06-19 12:38|| 2008-06-19 12:38|| Front Page Top

#5 I can see shipping stuff overland, even something valuable like engines. There's only so much lift capacity around and it may all be committed to other operations.

Posted by Steve White 2008-06-19 12:51|| 2008-06-19 12:51|| Front Page Top

#6 crosspatch I agree. How is it that this cargo that could be tampered with and possibly be sabotaged not just stolen be allowed to happen? Why weren't our troops transporting this cargo?
Or following it's path very closely.

Posted by Jan 2008-06-19 13:01|| 2008-06-19 13:01|| Front Page Top

#7 It can carry a Bradley so it can certainly carry those engines. I still smell something fishy with that report.

Posted by crosspatch 2008-06-19 14:00|| 2008-06-19 14:00|| Front Page Top

#8 And C-17's do operate out of Baghram.

As of mid-March 2002 American heavy construction equipment was employed at Bagram erecting steel frames for new shelters and building earth-filled security barriers. American C-17 transport aircraft were arriving every few hours, and as many as 50 helicopters, including CH-47 Chinooks, AH-64 Apaches, AH-1 Cobras, and UH-60 Black Hawks were visible on the taxiways.

So why would they transport those engines over land when they can fly them out from Kabul directly? There is more (or less) to the report than is meeting the eye.

Posted by crosspatch 2008-06-19 14:03|| 2008-06-19 14:03|| Front Page Top

#9 The question I've had since I read this is what the hell are the mooks gonna do with helicopter engines?

Posted by tu3031 2008-06-19 14:05|| 2008-06-19 14:05|| Front Page Top

#10 tu3031 - see yesterday's story about the 3 missing choppers in containers and selling the stuff to China and Iran.

Posted by 3dc 2008-06-19 14:07|| 2008-06-19 14:07|| Front Page Top

#11 I don't buy that either. I would only send things by that route that I *wanted* to fall into Iranian hands. That's why we have C-5's. C-5's use the airport at Kandahar. A C-5 could fly all three of those helicopters in one flight.

There is something seriously fishy here on a lot of different levels.

Posted by crosspatch 2008-06-19 14:43|| 2008-06-19 14:43|| Front Page Top

#12 C-5's use both Bagram and Kandahar. No need to ship a helicopter over land. Any idea how rugged that terrain is? Can you imagine a truck with a helicopter trying to navigate roads that are little more than paved goat trails? I am sorry but I am just not buying it. It would be a major load to transport one on a truck over a US highway, let along the mountain passes of the Hindu Kush.

Posted by crosspatch 2008-06-19 14:45|| 2008-06-19 14:45|| Front Page Top

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