I was already surprised to see them flying some Black Hawks in their parade marking the anniversary of their return to power a few months ago. Just starting the

I was already surprised to see them flying some Black Hawks in their parade marking the anniversary of their return to power a few months ago. Just starting the engines and getting off the ground is non-trivial. But they still have under their thumb a lot of pilots that we trained, who weren't able to escape. I have no inside knowledge of this, but there was some news earlier this month about them actually training new pilots. We've produced and exported a lot more Hawks (of various flavors) than F-14s, so I imagine that the availability of parts will be much better for them, but they clearly have no ability to produce parts domestically like Iran might have done. I expect that these helicopters will probably be used mainly for showmanship, and later static displays, as a symbol of strength, like Afghan warlords kept old and no-longer-functional Stinger missile launchers on-hand for many years as status symbols.