Russian helicopter shipment heading back to Syria: ifax

[maddezmom]

Source: Reuters


7:58 a.m. CDT, June 24, 2012


MOSCOW (Reuters) - A ship carrying Russian helicopters to Syria, which turned back after its insurance was cut, is expected to resume its journey accompanied by at least one other vessel, Interfax reported on Sunday, citing a military source.

The report is likely to reignite international criticism of Russia's arms deliveries to Syria which U.S. officials have called reprehensible and the Arab League has said should be stopped.

"A military-diplomatic source in Moscow told Interfax that (the ship) will go from Murmansk to Syria. According to his information the ship should travel under escort," the news agency reported.

The ship Alaed, which entered the Russian port of Murmansk on Sunday to change its flag to the Russian Standard, will not be accompanied by military vessels, the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The report did not say how the ship had resolved its insurance problems or what difference the flag change would make.





Read more: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-rt-us-syria-crisis-russia-helicoptersbre85n0ad-20120624,0,772532.story

[JDPriestly]

1. Probably under a Russian flag either with Russian insurance (is there such

a thing?) or with no insurance.

If anything happens to it, it is Russia's loss, not the insurance industry's.

[leveymg]

2. Is this supposed to remind us of the Cuban Missile Crisis? When was that? Oh yes, 50thanniversary.

"We shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, etc."

[James48]

4. NOT 50TH YET.

That won't be until October.

October 23, 1962 to be exact- that is the date of your newspaper headline.

[leveymg]

5. The episode has been dubbed, "The Missiles of October"

I remember "Duck & Cover," too.

[FlyinButter]

3. Weird story.

Makes me a bit nervous too.

[MADem]

6. Hellicopters? Gunships? The kinds that are great for pursuing people through urban environments,

playing shoot-em-up?

Russia acknowledged on Thursday it was trying to send repaired combat helicopters - not new equipment - to Syria.

[Alamuti Lotus]

7. these appear to be transport helicopters, at least 30yr old devices at that

The whole story has been so unbelievably (actually, not unbelievably considering the rogues gallery of hypocrites and liars at the State Dept making the statements) blown out of proportion as to be nearly indistinguishable from reality.

[Posteritatis]

8. They're Hinds, so they most definitely are not just transport helicopters

Russian equipment tends to be less specialized than US military gear, so a lot of what they and their customers use doesn't slot neatly into categories people used to NATO equipment would think of.

Mi-25s are combination gunships/troop transports; they're designed to haul about a squad's worth of troops around, which means they're also large enough to pack some significant weaponry. Most countries that use Russian or Russian-derived equipment use those or very similar craft and have since their introduction mainly because they're affordable and decent in both roles. Western allies use quite a bit of hardware of similar vintage - case in point being Turkey's losing an F-4 the other day.

If they were Mi-8s, which *are* pretty much dedicated transport/support choppers and also very common in Russian-supplied militaries, that'd be something else altogether, but 24s or 25s are absolutely designed for combat.