[The Drive] A total of 24 helicopters that once belonged to the defunct Afghan Air Force are now at the U.S. military's main aircraft boneyard at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona. Over the past few weeks, an additional four Russian-made Mi-17 Hip transports and 17 MD 530F Little Bird armed light helicopters have joined the three Mi-17s that arrived last month. The War Zone was first to report on the delivery of that initial trio.
It is not clear how many former Afghan Air Force Mi-17s, MD 530Fs, or other types that had belonged to that service the U.S. military ultimately plans to relocate to Arizona. As of July, the month before the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban, the Afghan Air Force had 13 Mi-17s and 49 MD 530Fs, according to the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), a U.S. government watchdog.
Regardless, it is clear the U.S. government continues to be under immense pressure to recover as many ex-Afghan Air Force aircraft of all types as possible, or otherwise prevent the repatriation of any airframes that are still in other countries back to the current Taliban-controlled government of Afghanistan. The total number of former Afghan aircraft in storage at Davis-Monthan is likely to grow even further in the near term.
What might happen to any of the aircraft that ultimately end in the boneyard remains to be seen. By and large, the Afghan Air Force operated types that are not in widespread U.S. military service. That being said, Mi-17-type helicopters are notably in use by highly secretive U.S. military special operations units and the Central Intelligence Agency. These organizations could be interested in acquiring some of these former Afghan examples. There have been reports that President Joe Biden's administration has been considering transferring some to the Ukrainian military, which operates Hips, as part of possible new military aid packages to that country as it faces the prospect of a new large-scale Russian invasion.
A followup to Repo Man Comes After The Taliban |