After years of embarrassment and expense, Portugal is deftly relieving itself of its jinxed fleet of Russian Kamov helicopters, by ‘offering’ them to Ukraine. Defence minister Helena Carreiras said today that the helicopters are being transferred in the state they are in and have been thus accepted by Kiev. It could well be that Ukrainian technicians are better at fixing these lumbering aircraft that counterparts here have been. Certainly the Kamovs no longer have any kind of licence to fly in Portugal – they have been laid up for much of their time since being purchased at eye-watering expense in the Sócrates years.
