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Originally Posted by Project_Sardonicus
It might be easier to buy or build a whole stack of turrets 20mm cannons and ATGMs, then buy the vehicles to go with them separately. Once militaries get a chance to buy some shiny new toys they usually can't dump their old ones fast enough. Even if sold for a pittance with little oversight its cheapier than storing them and maintaining them.
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It is a fair point that turrets could be added - it certainly should not be as big a retrofit as adding a nuclear-freaking-reactor. As to buying surplus, those sales and imports are still watched very closely. Buying them is easy, buying them without exposing the Project may be quite difficult. Because when they disappear... it will be noticed.
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Originally Posted by Project_Sardonicus
Thousands of Hueys and even Chinooks get sold as commercial helicopters...
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It should be noted that there are commercial versions of these helicopters, once they are derated they aren't really much different than the civilian versions so they aren't worth watching.
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Originally Posted by Project_Sardonicus
nb even an airforce becomes an option with Hawk Jets being popular with civil jet flying experience days out.
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Fueling would be a nightmare, maintenance would be a pain, and the advantages would be minimal. Even the US doesn't do jets where they aren't actually necessary.
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Originally Posted by Project_Sardonicus
And as for the Huey Cobra, a bunch got handed over to the US forestry service for fire fighting.
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They kept almost all of them in government service, only a couple ever made it into private hands, so making more than one or two disappear would likely be difficult.