Originally Posted by
Fareastdriver
The third world is littered with Russian aircraft that have no spares.
True, but the key word here is "third".
First, most of the "third world" countries do not bother too much to foresee long-term service contracts. And if they do not buy spares, they don't get them.
Second, number of Mi-8 produced (sold abroad as Mi-17) is some 12K, 3-4 times more than UH-60. Mi-17s were bought by 55 country (I assume most of them are in 3rd world) vs 21 country buying UH-60 (I assume less percentage of buyers are from 3rd world).
Thus, no surprise to see tons of rusty Russian metal there. But we all see (tens of) millions of rusty Toyotas in poor countries all around the world. And it does not mean that e.g. Land Cruiser is way worse than Mercedes GL or LR RR....