Steel Skeletons of Soviet Afghanistan

BRDM-2 somewhere near Kandahar International Airport. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Captain Charles G. Grow, 18JAN2002. T-54B near Bagram Air Base, 29MAY2002. U.S. Navy photo by Photographer’s Mate First Class Arlo K. Abrahamson.

T-55 Bagram Air Base, 03NOV2003. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff […] Continue Reading…

Mil 17 crash & burn

In early May 2011, one of the U.S. taxpayer funded Russian built Afghan Mil 17B(V)-5 crashed in Nuristan Province, Afghanistan.  Nine people onboard were slightly injured.

The Hip was part of the first deliveries of U.S. taxpayer funded Russian made helicopters between 2009 and 2010.  NATO/ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) reported the Mil-17s sent to […] Continue Reading…

U.S. Navy keeps old U.S. Army Boat-Truck afloat

The Lighter Amphibious Resupply Cargo-5 tons capacity (LARC-V) was developed by the U.S. Army in the 1950s.  Just short of 1-thousand of the aluminum hulled boat-trucks were made, almost half being intentionally destroyed as the United States ended its occupation of Vietnam.  About 1-hundred are now privately owned.  Perhaps in response to concerns about […] Continue Reading…

Bare Metal: NASA Trucks saving the Trucking Industry

According to NASA, it was in 1973 that one of its employees became intrigued with how high speed tractor-trailer rigs created massive ‘suction’ as they drove-by slower moving vehicles.  In 1975 a study showed that big-rig trucks moving at 55 miles per hour (the national speed limit at that time) displaced as much as […] Continue Reading…

Maintaining Satan’s Chariot

U.S. Air Force photo by Master Sergeant Cecilio Ricardo, 09APR2007.

What does it take to keep what the Afghan’s call Satan’s Chariot in the air?

U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sergeant Angelita Lawrence, 02OCT2009.

Video from September 2009, live fire prep, 12.7mm chin-gun and 57mm rockets:

Continue Reading…

Zombie ‘Copter: How the Hind returned to Afghanistan, and why it won’t die

The first time the Afghan military used the NATO-reporting-name Hind was during the Soviet occupation (1979-1989).  It was during that occupation that Mujaheddin on the receiving end of the Mi-24D nicknamed it Satan’s Chariot.  After the Soviets left, Afghanistan managed to operate a few Mi-24s (NATO reporting-name Hind-D), some sources say right up until […] Continue Reading…

Soviet era Armor used by NATO: Poland

U.S. Army photo by Sergeant Lauren Harrah, 19JUL2016.

Polish modified ZSU-23-4, known as ZSU-23-4MP Biała, July 2016.

Very quick video of Polish ZSU-23-4MP, a mine throwing TRI-Kroton (aka Opal, modified MTLB) and some 2S1 SP guns, in Romania for NATO wargames in 2017:

USA photo by […] Continue Reading…

Record setting Pandemic AirBridge Continues

 

Since the end of March 2020, the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has been conducting a taxpayer funded global ‘Project Air Bridge’ in response to pathogen CoViD-19.

FEMA photo by Alexis Hall, 29APR2020.

China Cargo’s Boeing 777F arrives at Chicago O’Hare International Airport, 29APR2020.

FEMA photo, 28APR2020.

U.S. Customs […] Continue Reading…

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