"Blackwater" wil met gewapende A4 Skyhawks over Afghanistan.

[Stratofreighter]

...het is een plannetje...

http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/13 ... fghanistan

Blackwater Founder Wants to Provide a "Turn Key" Mercenary Air Force for Afghanistan

August 3, 2017

Though a debate remains over the exact reasons why, it’s increasingly widely accepted that the United States and its allies are not winning the fight against insurgents in Afghanistan at the moment.

One suggestion for how to turn things around – unsurprisingly proffered up by the infamous Erik Prince and Stephen A. Feinberg,
the owners of private military company DynCorp –
was to dramatically increase the number of contractors supporting Afghan forces.

Part of that proposal now reportedly includes setting up a mercenary air wing in the war torn country.

Military Times broke the news that Erik Prince had gone straight to the government of Afghanistan to suggest he could supply a fully-staffed air arm able to provide close air support,
intelligence and surveillance, and logistics support functions across the country.

Lancaster6, a Dubai-based private military company, would be the actual contractor for this “turn-key composite air wing.”

The new unit would include an unspecified number of
A-4 Skyhawk attack jets,
LASA T-Bird armed crop dusters,
Gazelle and Super Puma helicopters,
An-26 light transports,
and a drone called Lioneye, which is reportedly a proprietary design belonging to Lancaster6 that can fly for up to 12 hours at a time.

...op http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/13 ... fghanistan
gaat het verder...

[Stratofreighter]

...meer details over dat plannetje.

Het beschikbaar komen van de documenten die nu op
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents ... Pitch.html
staan
deed Buzzfeed dit stukje schrijven te
https://www.buzzfeed.com/aramroston/pri ... .gr9RVmm0Y ,
en daar gaat The Drive dan nog even overheen op
http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/16 ... h-1-cobras .

Blackwater Founder's Private Afghan Air Arm Pitch Included An-26 Gunships And AH-1 Cobras

The mix of aircraft, helicopters, drones, and aerostats would have taken over for US and coalition forces.

By Joseph Trevithick December 7, 2017

Prince, who has various ties to President Donald Trump’s administration,
which includes his sister,
Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos,
has publicly defended the idea of replacing American troops and the NATO-led coalition in Afghanistan with a new, private force.
There is no indication that the U.S. government is actively considering the proposal.

The briefing BuzzFeed obtained describes an even more robust force.
Close air support in both in Nangarhar and Helmand would reportedly have come from
a mixture of A-4 Skyhawks,
AH-1 Cobra attack helicopters,
and “An-26G” gunships.
In Helmand only, the proposed attack force included four Gazelle light attack helicopters, as well.

The last close air support tool, the An-26G side-firing gunship, is by far the most eye catching addition in the entire presentation.

Basic bomb racks that attach to the fuselage are already available for the An-26 family. Various companies, including ATKOrbital and Airbus Defense, have begun offering modular weapon and sensor kits that could work with various airframes. Bulgarian firm LASA Engineering, which has ties to Prince, could have been involved in this proposal.

...en op
http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/16 ... h-1-cobras
staat nog veel meer...