No, till date I did not have to travel to either Kazakhstan or India. However a cursory look at Kazakhstan's latitude 48.0000° N, 68.0000° E will make it clear that the heat & humidity in this country can never exceed what countries close to the tropics will experience.
http://visitkazakhstan.kz/en/about/142/
Not sure how your relatives experienced 50°C. Check if they are in the right country.
I know the temperature range from experience, i lived for 5 years in Kazakhstan in hot summers the temperature exceeded 40-50° C in very hot summers it was for a few days over 50°C and in winter it ranged from -20- 40° C. I do remember the minus temperatures very well since we used to jump from the roofs into 2m piled up snow. While more tropical countries like India sustain their temperature with much less variation of temperature, lot of regions in SU/Russia have a very high range of temperature from winter and summer from up to 80° and in some locations even -60° C and in summer above 30-40° C.
Russia had lot of locations with very hot weather and plenty of service life to test and improve engines, entire 10 years of experience of combat environment under hot and high weater in Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Caucasus is enough locations to test and they were developed long before you had any interest in military. TV3-117VMA and VK-2500-2/3/PS are all optimized for hot and high conditions.
You are mixing things up. Budget was increased to increase the procurement of Apaches. It had nothing to do with maintenance. Can you plz prove that the Apaches have huge maintenance costs?
And how can you compare Mi-8 with Blackhawk. Both are completely different types of helos. Afghans generally prefer Soviet/Russian stuff (over American) because they have been using them since the days of the Afghan invasion by the USSR.
The budget raised for maintenance of all vehicles in Afghanistan and Iraq. A british Pilot Ed Macy in his book, Pilot: Apache Inside the Cockpit of the World's Most Deadly Fighting Machine, wrote about maintenance.
Double translated from english-to russian and back, due the lack of money for that book.
Every English "Apache" cost taxpayers 46 million pounds. (That is, about five Mi-28. Well done, what do you say).
To pilot Apache exceptionally hard. Main do, because wild information load. (This was noted and the Swedes, comparing it with the Mi-28).
And, of course, that was already mentioned - on the part of the monocle. However, when you will master it, I feel that is no longer fastened to the "Apache" - "Apache" strapped to you.
Service "Apache" is a difficult task. Eight "Apache" require 18 four tons of trucks, 7 trailers, 5 tankers, 3 forklift truck, 2 motorcycles, 5 vans, eight tons ' truck and a fire truck.
Every hour of flight "Apache" costs about 20,000 pounds and requires 32 man-hours of ground work. Each pilot has six highly qualified ground specialists.
The usual maintenance and spare parts usually do not exceed even half the stuff and supply chain he described. The Usual maintenance of any helicopter under normal, less hot and
less dusty environment will result in less tha 30 hours of maintenance. For instance the maintenance hours for Mi-28N are 29 hours, not much less than Apaches, the maintenance
hours of Mi-24 is less then 17 -man-hours and the major maintenance for Mi-24 was only after 120 hours of service with after each flight of short maintenance checks. In Afghanistan
like for Hinds, Apaches have massive load of spare parts on hand, because to ship back spare parts and wait untill new arrive would not only cost more but also tactically very unwise
and result in deaths of soldiers. The harsh environment in Afghanistan, especially the sand brings the most troubles, more frequently electronics burn through because of the fine dust
that is sucked in through the avionic bays, electronic supply and battery bays and communication bays. Those vents are protected by dust filters but they only work for objects bigger
than fine dust. The IR suppressors are also a reason of additional maintenance and costs. The IR suppressors that are for exhaust gas cooling are preventing the exhaust gasses to
pass quickly through and the engines turn "red" meaning they tend to overheat in already hot climates which results in lower lifespan and reduction in endurance. This particular
maintenance and spare parts exhaustion is not exclusive to Apaches, but they are indeed hangar queens in comperision with Hinds, due overloaded electronics.
And how can you compare Mi-8 with Blackhawk. Both are completely different types of helos. Afghans generally prefer Soviet/Russian stuff (over American) because they have been using them since the days of the Afghan invasion by the USSR.
The Mi-8 and UH-60 are exact counterparts of each other. Medium sized/weight cargo helicopters used for various missions with various modifications. They both serve the same purpose in the same class of helicopters and weight class. The Mi-8 is the prefered medium cargo helicopter across the entire planet. It is the safest helicopter of its class with the lowest fatal accidents per 100.000 flight hours, with very good upgrade capability, low maintanence and maintenance cost, easy to learn and easy to keep flight worthy. The engines are TV3-117VMA which are optimized for hot and high.
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