ANA Helmet ex ssh40

Hello,

What do you think of this helmet ?

If it is a genuine russian helmet reissued to ANA ; how much you will spend on it, please ?

Thank you in advance.

Jean-Yves

Hello Arch,

What I know from the seller. It has been brought back by a french soldier. It seems that it was the kind of helmet which was issued before they received US gears.

Thanks for your prompt reply. Just bought it for half of your bottom price postage included.

French market is a bit quiet on ANA gears comparing to US....

Jean-Yves

Will post in the ANA section as soon as I will receive it.

Jean-Yves

Sure looks nice and legit. My question would be on what era it is from. Did the ANA use this format when the Soviets were there, was it once the Soviets left and before the Taliban took over or was it after 9/11 when the US/NATO and everyone else came to Afghanistan? I would be happy to have it in my collection that is for sure. Thanks Clete

Based on link Arch provided, it looks like pre-OEF piece however the emblem on sides are in fact, current ANA emblem. Not sure if this same emblem was used pre-OEF as well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afghan_National_Army

This could be from the soviet-backed afghan army from 1978 till 1990-ish time frame.

One thing I noticed, is that emblem is bass-ackwards for current afghan markings, the black and red are reversed.

Darktrooper wrote:This could be from the soviet-backed afghan army from 1978 till 1990-ish time frame.

One thing I noticed, is that emblem is bass-ackwards for current afghan markings, the black and red are reversed.

Thank you all.

I just found this precious site on the net

http://brendonshelmets.weebly.com/afghanistan-ssh68.html

and I am going to contact the owner and at the same time I am searching pictures references on the net.... we'll see...

Clete you asked the write question.

Jean-Yves

Response I get :

Dear Jean-Yves,

The helmet you have is an older Soviet Ssh-40, my guess is that it is a helmet that has been left over from the Soviet occupation of the 1980's and reissued to the new Afghan Army, as was done with many countries after the Soviet Union broke up.
In saying this it is very difficult to put a date as to when it may have been issued! There are too many types in service and with many different insignias. Most ex Soviet helmets in service with the ANA are the more recent Ssh60 & Ssh68's
Sorry I could not be of more help, it is a very nice helmet though,

Cheers
Brendon

Nice of the Brandon to respond so quickly. Even not being able to track down the ear with more clarity it is still a great looking helmet that I would love to own. Nice find!

Yeah, disregard the era and mystery that we couldn't answer, it is a very nice lid.

Hello,

I just received the helmet today and I am just adding few pictures to this post.

By chance, if I am finding some pictures of ANA soldiers taken between 2002 and now with this kind of helmet, I will move it to the Afghanistan section.

I quite like the Afghanistan colors on the front, quite patriotic way of showing that the soldier is proud of his country... kind of marking which is not present on helmet before the departure of russians from Afghanistan.

Jean-Yves

There are some photos of ANA soldiers wearing this type of helmet during the trainings however none of them has this paint.

Very nice Jean-Yves.

It certainly has character, the markings in the the shell are standard Russian markings.

If you check out this excellent French site you will perhaps gain more info on it's original origins, but not the Afghan usage of course.

http://www.world-war-helmets.com/fiche.php?q=Casque-Russe-Ssh-40

Gary.

Nice lid! These helmets were used by ANA after the Soviets departed their country. Before the SSh-40, they used the WW1 German M16, M17 & M18 helmets. The WW1 helmets were phased out but not entirely.

Dave