Kazakhstan is planning to acquire an additional six "Huey" helicopters from the U.S. to augment the two it already has, Central Asia Newswire is reporting:
Kazakhstan’s military will be buying six retrofitted U.S. Huey helicopters for its Caspian Sea defense needs, giving it eight Hueys altogether for that effort, Central Asia Newswire (CAN) has learned.
The Hueys are part of Kazakhstan’s effort to build a naval and air presence in the Caspian, where the country is investing heavily in oil and gas development....
When it contracted for the work on the two Hueys in 2007, Kazakhstan took out an option with US Helicopter to retrofit six more Hueys. It apparently decided to exercise that option.
The article doesn't include any information on how Kazakhstan will pay for the helicopters; the first two were bought with U.S. military aid. There is also no word on what the Hueys (more precisely, UH-1H Iroquois) will be used for, but they are small and usually pretty lightly armed and are usually used for medical evacuation or light transport.
Kazakhstan also recently announced it will launch its first naval vessel in the Caspian in 2012 and Russia is set this month to launch the "Dagestan" frigate, which will apparently be the second-largest naval vessel in Russia's Caspian Fleet. The Caspian naval buildup is proceeding apace...
UPDATE: After this post went up, a representative for Central Asia Newswire contacted EurasiaNet, and asked that we post the following correction:
An earlier version of this article described Central Asia Newswire as "the Kazakhstan government-run Central Asia Newswire." The Central Asia Newswire is owned by Global Media LLC, a Delaware company that is privately held. Global Media has no relationship with the Government of Kazakhstan and the Government of Kazakhstan plays no role in running the newswire.
Joshua Kucera, a senior correspondent, is Eurasianet's former Turkey/Caucasus editor and has written for the site since 2007.
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