• BlitzoTheOisSilent@lemmy.world
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    11 days ago

    Parts inside of the transmission alone, which have manufacturing tolerances in the thousandths and up, are only good for a couple thousand hours of run time at most.

    Some parts for these machines are made, at least in the US, on machines that could be one of less than 3 in existence. They’re that specialized of parts, costing upwards of $750k+ per part. I’m sure they’ll be able to source knock offs from other countries (China I’m sure has the means and probably blueprints), but they won’t be within the tolerances, and idk how long the Taliban can shell out almost a million dollars per part for each helicopter.

    Source: have family in the industry of machining helicopter parts for the government.

    • umbrella@lemmy.ml
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      10 days ago

      china russia and others are able to manufacture and maintain military helicopters.

      just dont see why they would ever do business with the taliban?

      • seth@lemmy.world
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        10 days ago

        And those helicopters could probably mow a quarter acre of lawn in only a couple seconds. 1000 helicopter hours is like 500,000 acres of mowed lawns or something, which seems like way more mowing than Afghanistan needs.