KABUL – India is expected to supply four gunship helicopters to Afghanistanby July, with the deliveries falling almost a year behind schedule, peoplefamiliar with developments told Indian media on Tuesday.
As first reported by Hindustan Times in March 2018, Afghanistan, Belarusand India had inked a trilateral pact to supply the refurbished Mi-24helicopters. Belarus was to upgrade the helicopters, which were to be paidfor by India, the then Afghan envoy, Shaida Abdali, had said.
“It is now expected that two helicopters will be delivered to Afghanistanin April. The other two are expected to be handed over in June or July,” aperson familiar with discussions on the matter said.
This is only the second instance of India supplying lethal militaryequipment to Afghanistan. India had provided four Mi-24s to the Afghanarmed forces during 2015-16, marking a significant shift from its earlierposition of supplying only non-lethal equipment.
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However, some of the helicopters provided earlier had been grounded becauseof a lack of spares and India was also working on plans to help repair andrefurbish the Mi-24s and other Russian-origin helicopters and transportaircraft of the Afghan Air Force, officials had said earlier.
The issue of the four additional helicopters and other military assistancehad figured in Afghanistan’s National Security Adviser Hamdullah Mohib’sdiscussions with Indian officials during his visit to New Delhi in January.
