Russia Tries to Sell Planes, Helicopters and Guns to Canada

[tuvor]

Russian trade delegation is visiting Ottawa this week to offer Canada “rather huge planes and helicopters and even guns,” as the Russian Ambassador to Canada Georgy Mamedov said on Wednesday, May 31.

Canadian government is poised to spend billions on new military hardware. Defense Minister Gordon O’Connor wants to acquire long-range cargo planes and heavy-lift helicopters, both for the Afghanistan mission. The planes would also enable the delivery of massive amounts of troops, their heavy equipment and humanitarian relief to world hotspots on short notice.

The Russians are trying to interest Canada in their Ilyushin Il-76 MD-90 four-engine long-range cargo plane and their Mi-17V heavy lift transport helicopter, and they’re offering the incentive of leasing instead of buying and delivering directly to Afghanistan where they’re needed most. The Russians also say they can beat the delivery time of the nearest competitors by almost half by getting them into the hands of the Canadian Forces by late next year.

Canadian government has committed to keeping at least 2,000 troops in Afghanistan until 2009 and has pledged to get them more aircraft.

http://www.mosnews.com/money/2006/06/01/canadamilitary.shtml

[IntravenousDemilo]

1. Of course, all the handbooks will be in Russian,

and all the controls marked with Cyrillic characters.

[SidDithers]

2. Maybe we could pick up a few Mi24 Hind's too...

I hear they're really popular in Afghanistan.

Just a bit of irony in buying Russian eq for an Afghanistan mission.

Sid

[Pierre Trudeau]

3. indeed!

It was the first thing I thought.... the Russians want to sell us military equipment for Afghanistan?!?
Because it worked so well before, I guess.

I hope the irony is not lost on the general public.

[daleo]

4. They are wasting their time

The Americans would never let us buy Russian stuff.