
The Afghan Air Force’s (AAF) Russian-built helicopters are wearing out flying close air support missions against the Taliban and need to be replaced with new airframes that the U.S. government is allowed to buy and service, the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan told Congress Thursday.Army Gen. John Campbell testified before Congress he has called for a plan to “convert” aircraft like the Russian Mi-17 twin-engine utility helicopters in the AAF fleet “to probably a U.S. aircraft.”“The frames that we…