Posted on Sep 13, 2022
Lack of training, maintenance likely led to Taliban pilot crashing Black Hawk, military aviator...
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Edited 2 y ago
Posted 2 y ago
Responses: 3
Blackhawks were only recently introduced to the Afghan Air Force well after I left in 2014. Up until that point MX training centered a lot on Soviet era platforms (MI-17) using Czech advisor technical knowledge and US advisor doctrine. Bringing in the Blackhawks essentially changed the whole approach, and likely introduced a lot of positives for the US advisors, but ultimately significant challenges in reworking the training. When we left, we left a huge vacuum in air power MX, combat support, and air control, which is what absolutely led to the Taliban taking over so easily. On top of that, most of the Afghan pilots (who were all very well educated compared to most of the ANA and AAF) either left Afghanistan or were captured and potentially killed. I would imagine there are very few competent pilots and maintenance experts (if any) capable of caring for the Blackhawk.
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CW5 (Join to see)
We actually had several Russian contract maintenance advisors at my location for the Mi-17 program. It was an interesting time for sure.
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Maj Kevin "Mac" McLaughlin
CW5 (Join to see) - Sure was. In my case out at Shindand, we had Czech and Polish advisors. I believe the Czechs were the main ones tapped for the Maintenance along side our US advisors though.
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