Originally Posted by rotor-rooter
What an utter, inept, failure. Of course, it will all be swept under the carpet and no-one will ever be held accountable.
In the context of the $6 trillion (or
thereabouts) spent on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, fully agree. However, three points to bear in mind on the specific topic of Mi-17s and S-61Ts:
- The purchase of Mi-17s for Iraq and Afghanistan was kicked off in 2006, with the controversial $322 million contract to ARINC awarded in December 2007
- The State Department's S-61T buy was specifically undertaken in an attempt to reduce reliance on Mi-8/17s (after extensive lobbying by Sikorsky and its Congressional delegation)
- The S-61T program was wound up as a direct result of the USA's 2014 Afghanistan drawdown
Sikorsky's Troy facility has been directly impacted by the S-61T program cancellation, with 100 layoffs made in recent years, and a further 25% headcount reduction (160 employees) was
announced just this week, as a result of the Navy's MH-60R production program nearing completion.
Still, Sikorsky
does now stand to benefit from the decision
announced last November to end any further Mi-17 purchases for Afghanistan, which will now receive refurb'd UH-60A Black Hawks instead.
Regardless, the U.S. Govt will remain one of the biggest operators of Mi-8/17s, which have been operated by various TLAs for decades.
AFM ran an interesting piece in May 2014, in which it identified 50 or so Hips in U.S. service.
I/C