Health & Fitness
MORE WASTE: US Spending $772M on Russian Aircraft Afghans ‘Cannot Operate or Maintain’
Some news stories about government spending and waste are worse than others. This latest one rivals the uncontrolled spending, corruption and cronyism of all the ‘green energy’ (think Solyndra) Obama stimulus programs.
Apparently, the U.S is going ahead with a boondoggle of a program to spend $772 million on buying about 30 Russian-made (not U.S.) helicopters for the Afghan military to use, even though the U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction has great concerns about these aircraft purchases. According to Fox News, “the IG’s office had earlier issued a report in June detailing how “the Afghans lack the capacity — in both personnel numbers and expertise — to operate and maintain” existing and planned fleets.”
Also, “The IG audit cited a different set of concerns — that the Afghan unit responsible for the aircraft has just one quarter of the personnel it needs to be at “full strength,” that recruiting and training challenges inhibit growth; that the Afghan Ministry of Defense and Ministry of Interior have no agreement on the “command and control” of the unit; and that few of the pilots in the unit are fully qualified to fly with night vision goggles.” Other than that, the Afghan military is totally prepared to effectively utilize these new helicopters!
