The Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) Airland panel chairman says he is preparing a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry calling for a halt to all buys of military equipment from Russia.
“I want to just express to you as strongly and respectfully as possible the strong sense of–outrage is the word I think characterizes my feeling–and I think it’s a feeling of bipartisan outrage because Sen. (John) Cornyn (R-Texas) and I and others on this committee have raised this issue repeatedly,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) at an April 9 Army modernization panel.
The Army manages the program buying Mi-17 Russian helicopters for the Afghan national security forces, expected to take over providing national security in the nation once U.S. forces leave, expected at the end of this year.
Lt. Gen. Michael Williamson, military deputy and director, Army Acquisition Corps Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology, said: “We’ve taken delivery of six of those aircraft. As late as this month, we’ve taken another three. There are still another 20-23 left to be delivered.”
The program is strongly supported by Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, commander of International Security Assistance Force and U.S. Forces-Afghanistan. In 2011 the Afghan National Army said the U.S. government would buy about $1 billion worth of the Russian Mi-17s.
It is a “huge” priority for Dunford, Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. John Campbell said.
Dunford believes the Russian helicopter performs well in Afghanistan’s wide and diverse terrain and in extreme weather. With some experience on the helicopters, it is easy for Afghan forces to operate and maintain, while lower in cost than U.S. helicopters.
Sen. Jeff Sessions(R-Ala.) said when he visited Afghanistan about a year ago there were few trained Afghan pilots and maintainers for the Mi-17s.
Blumenthal said Afghanistan is going to need the best military equipment, such as U.S. helicopters, to defense itself. For U.S. taxpayers to be paying for the helicopters and buying them from Russia “I think is just absolutely unacceptable.”
Blumenthal said, “Now I think it is brought into the starkest and most staggering profile, Russia in effect thumbing their nose at us in Ukraine and we are continuing to purchase these helicopters from Russoboronexport, a Russian arms agency that at the same time is selling arms to (President Bashar al-) Assad in Syria and bankrolling the troops that are on the Ukraine [border] having seized the Crimea and now threatening the rest of that country.”
Strong criticism comes from some members of Congress–such as Cornyn–as well as human rights organizations, which deplore the Russian arms company’s sales to Syria.
Photo: Wikimedia
Blumenthal hopes for bipartisan support for the letter asking the United States to “cease all purchases of military equipment from Russia, across the board.”
He asked the Army panel what the cost would be to the United States to halt deliveries of the rotorcraft, given some payments have been made.
Williamson said the cost would be “upward of $100 million,” saying he would provide more precise figures.
“In my view, if it’s simply penalties for breaking contract, let the Russians try to collect from us,” Blumenthal said.