The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has reportedly entered into a commercial contract with Russia, under which, Moscow will deliver and deploy Russian built helicopters into Afghanistan to be used by the NATO forces. In the last two to three years, the NATO forces currently stationed in Afghanistan have been facing logistical nightmare and they need helicopters urgently to carry out their operations.

The Russian transport helicopters have been chosen as the ideal aircraft, due to its sturdy and robust design and also because of the fact that, almost all NATO member countries who have deployed their forces in Afghanistan use Russian built helicopters. The western built transport helicopters such as the Chinook aren’t able to withstand the harsh weather elements and the rough terrain of the country and repeatedly require extensive repairs, even when not being deployed.

As of now, almost 400 Russian built helicopters are pressed into service by various NATO countries and more helicopters are being ordered from the Russian manufacturing firms. The orders are being placed by NATO member countries and the various airlines that have also committed a part of their resources to military logistics in Afghanistan. More Russian transport choppers, such as, Mi-8, Mi-17 and Mi-26 are expected to be seen in the Afghan skies very soon. These choppers are well known for their reliability and air worthiness and have regularly been used as the command & control, official and personal transports of the NATO command personnel in various theaters.

Via Defense Talk.