I just finished reading that article and was surprised on the extent to which the us military relies on contractors. By the way just what is the difference in load carrying ability between a Chinook and an Mi-17? The article stated that it would take 10- 12 Chinooks to have the cargo carrying abilities of 8 Mi-17s...

ken

The stories I've read of how some of those Russian choppers were obtained are pretty nuts. If they had sent military personnel to do it they'd probably get court martialed.

If I'm not mistaken there was a ship carrying a few Ospreys on its way to the Persian Gulf after performing Haiti relief ops.

I'm not sure about those payload numbers, I think she may have reversed them. Everything I can find says the Chinook's capacity is over 20,000 lbs, while the Mi-17's is about 9,000.

The Osprey carries around 15,000lbs, FYI.

I thought the Chinook was bigger..thanks..

ken