Pretty hard to fathom how, years after it became widely apparent that we're facing a global shortage of helicopters, we still read stories like this one. Obviously, the transfer of two Swedish helicopters from anti-piracy patrols in the Gulf of Aden to an EU defense standby brigade isn't going to have a huge impact on global security. But this is one reason why Russia is looking like an attractive partner for both EU defense and NATO missions. (The other being that both Iraq and Afghanistan operate mainly Soviet-era helicopter fleets.) You'd think we'd have at least seen some sort of effort to address the problem.
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