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| Iraq |
| Mi-28 Russian helicopters join service in Iraq |
| 2014-10-30 |
| [Iraq News] The Iraqi Ministry of Defense assured the entrance of the Russian helicopter (Night Hunter) to the service to support terrorism fighting and Iraqi infantry forces. A statement by the MoD received by IraqiNews.com cited "Minister of Defense Khalid al-Obaidi accompanied by several military commanders observed on Wednesday the final stage of preparing and arming the first group of the Russian modern fighting helicopters (MI-28) in a step towards sending them to specified air bases." "These helicopters which are known as the Night Hunter will increase the efficiency of the Iraqi Army Air Force in its war against terrorism," the statement added. "This is the first group of helicopters included by the contract concluded with the Republic of Russia to provide Iraqi Army with modern fighting helicopters," the statement concluded. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #5 When I was in Tripoli, I was amazed at the number of foreigners speaking Arabic with heavy Russian accents I encountered in my roaming around in the town. The Russians know a market when they see it and are not adverse to treating a countries adversity as a business opportunity for all of those out of work Speznatz guys. |
| Posted by: Mystic 2014-10-30 21:57 |
| #4 Steve, that's the deal. The pool of current pilots for Hind N's and HIP's is a lot bigger that the one of qualified Apache drivers; also, mechanics should be easier to come by. Not just bigger pool, but more likely to get them to take the job. |
| Posted by: ed in texas 2014-10-30 14:04 |
| #3 I was curious too who the pilots would be. Link Altogether Bagdad will take delivery of 40 Mi-28NE and Mi-35 helicopters and will use the helicopters for border control and anti-terrorism efforts. The first group of Iraqi pilots and technicians passed the necessary training at Torzhok training center in autumn 2013. Another link, just to confirm. Al-Bayati also specified that all required trainings were received by Iraqi pilot for “Night Hunter” helicopters which are similar to “Apache” in terms of capacity and efficiency. |
| Posted by: mossomo 2014-10-30 13:55 |
| #2 Who is piloting the helicopters, Russians or Iraqis? |
| Posted by: Steve White 2014-10-30 08:45 |
| #1 Thank you Chuck Hagel |
| Posted by: Mystic 2014-10-30 00:22 |