Report: Lawmakers question merits of U.S.-Russia helicopter deal

A new report Saturday suggests Pentagon officials may have misled lawmakers on the 2011 purchase of helicopters to provide to Afghan security forces. 

The Defense Department purchased dozens of Mi-17 rotorcrafts from Moscow for more than $1 billion instead of buying those made by United States companies. 

Officials told members of Congress about a top-secret study from 2010 that they claimed determined Russian-made helicopters would be more cost-effective and a better choice than those manufactured in the U.S., according to the Associated Press.

{mosads}According to unclassified excerpts the AP obtained from the study, the Russian helicopters were not the best. Instead, a Chinook helicopter made by Boeing in Pennsylvania was found to be “the most cost-effective single platform type fleet for the Afghan Air Force over a twenty year” period, the excerpts said.

“So why are we buying Russian helicopters when there are American manufacturers that can meet that very same requirement?” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) asked. “Makes no sense whatsoever and the Department of Defense has steadfastly refused to cooperate with reasonable inquiries into why in the world they continue to persist along this pathway.”

Cornyn said the Pentagon “repeatedly and disingenuously” used the study to convince members of Congress the Mi-17s were the right choice.

Most of the helicopters were purchased from Rosoboronexport, Russia’s arms export agency, the AP notes. That same agency provided Syrian President Bashar al-Assad with weapons to use against rebel forces in the country’s civil war.

An unidentified senior official at the Pentagon told the AP they did not mislead lawmakers on the deal. The Mi-17s served Afghanistan’s long-term security needs.

No official from the Pentagon could speak on the record to the AP.