Pentagon buys M-17 Russian military helicopters for Afghan Army

Special to WorldTribune.com

Compiled by Miles Yu, Geostrategy-Direct.com

On June 16, the U.S. Army and Russia’s state-owned defense company Rosoboronexport signed a contract in Paris to buy 30 Mi-17V5 helicopters.

Russia's Mi-17V5 helicopter.
Russia’s Mi-17V5 helicopter.

The 30 Mi-17V5 helicopters will be used primarily for the U.S.-trained Afghan Army.

They will remain in the country after U.S. forces are scheduled to withdraw from that war-torn country in 2014, the state-run Russian news service RIA-Novosti confirmed.

To many Afghans, the Mi-17 military helicopters are familiar because they were widely used in the Soviet Union’s invasion and occupation of Afghanistan in and after 1979.

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