It’s a matter of time before it happens to all of them. Helicopters require a ton of periodic maintenance, adjustments and upkeep. The Taliban don’t have the culture, knowledge or access to parts to keep those air worthy.
Parts inside of the transmission alone, which have manufacturing tolerances in the thousandths and up, are only good for a couple thousand hours of run time at most.
Some parts for these machines are made, at least in the US, on machines that could be one of less than 3 in existence. They’re that specialized of parts, costing upwards of $750k+ per part. I’m sure they’ll be able to source knock offs from other countries (China I’m sure has the means and probably blueprints), but they won’t be within the tolerances, and idk how long the Taliban can shell out almost a million dollars per part for each helicopter.
Source: have family in the industry of machining helicopter parts for the government.
The taliban took over a lot of American equipment when the pull out happened.
When the Military abandons equipment, they often sabotage it in some way so that it’s not useful to the enemy force.
Likely this helicopter had its tail rotor fucked with. It would have started and taken off okay in calm weather, but the moment the pilot attempted any kind of rotation, or got hit by a strong gust of wind, he was doomed.
This may have been the best pilot in the world, but once you’re in an out of control helicopter, there’s very little even the best pilot can do. It’s like if the stabilizer fell off a plane, there’s just not much you can do.
It’s a matter of time before it happens to all of them. Helicopters require a ton of periodic maintenance, adjustments and upkeep. The Taliban don’t have the culture, knowledge or access to parts to keep those air worthy.
Parts inside of the transmission alone, which have manufacturing tolerances in the thousandths and up, are only good for a couple thousand hours of run time at most.
Some parts for these machines are made, at least in the US, on machines that could be one of less than 3 in existence. They’re that specialized of parts, costing upwards of $750k+ per part. I’m sure they’ll be able to source knock offs from other countries (China I’m sure has the means and probably blueprints), but they won’t be within the tolerances, and idk how long the Taliban can shell out almost a million dollars per part for each helicopter.
Source: have family in the industry of machining helicopter parts for the government.
Flying one also requires a ton of training, which this “pilot” obviously didn’t have.
The taliban took over a lot of American equipment when the pull out happened.
When the Military abandons equipment, they often sabotage it in some way so that it’s not useful to the enemy force.
Likely this helicopter had its tail rotor fucked with. It would have started and taken off okay in calm weather, but the moment the pilot attempted any kind of rotation, or got hit by a strong gust of wind, he was doomed.
This may have been the best pilot in the world, but once you’re in an out of control helicopter, there’s very little even the best pilot can do. It’s like if the stabilizer fell off a plane, there’s just not much you can do.
Just a little more training and he could have found the ejection seat in time.