That an army of 350,000 troops, fighting armed groups opposed to the government and suffering a weekly casualty rate of 150, does not have a credible air force is of great concern.
A Killid investigation finds the Afghan air force is stretched thin on hardware and short of budgetary support.
General Abdul Wahab Wardak, air chief, said in an exclusive interview with Killid that while the government and international forces in Afghanistan have not totally neglected the force, the country’s helicopter fleet is crippled with no money for repairs. There is also an acute shortage of fighter aircraft and pilots.
The Afghan air force was debilitated during the civil war that followed the fall of the government of president Najibullah in 1992. It was in 2008 that the government with the assistance of ISAF (International Security Assistance Force led by NATO) began rebuilding the air force. General Wardak says there are 140 aircraft and four brigades including Kabul, Kandahar and Shindand. But hamstrung for spare parts, some of the aircraft including helicopters are grounded. The air chief estimates repairs could cost upwards of 5 million USD each.
Dawlat Waziri, spokesperson for the Afghan defence ministry told Killid that there have been many discussions on repairs for the aircraft with countries like Russia, Kazakhstan, Czech Republic and India. He claimed there was money now for the repairs and work would begin soon.
A shortage of fighter planes appears to have forced the air force to use transport aircraft in many instances. There are unconfirmed reports that 23 mm machine guns and 57 mm rocket launchers have been installed on the transport aircraft Mi-17 for use in air support missions.
General Mohammad Radmanesh, deputy spokesperson in the Ministry of Defence, would only confirm the reports of transport aircraft being used in military missions. That an army of 350,000 troops, fighting armed groups opposed to the government and suffering a weekly casualty rate of 150 (according to a SIGAR report published on Oct 30), does not have a credible air force is of great concern.
Stretched thin
MoD officials concede the country’s thinning air power puts more pressure on troops on the ground. There are reports that the air force has sometimes failed to respond to requests for support from land forces. Waziri, the spokesperson for the defence ministry told Killid the Afghan air force carries out between 50 and 200 sorties daily (fighting and non-fighting) and 10-30 independent air hits. The air force also is called on for air rescue missions that have reduced the time taken to airlift the battle injured to hospital from three days in the past to three or four hours.
General Wardak says the air force’s most urgent requirement is an air defence system, which includes radar, rockets and fighter jets. “We prepared a policy for the air force in 2014 and sent it to the defence ministry and Security Council. The policy included strengthening the air force with equipment and a defence system. No attention has been paid to it,” he says.
Officials in the MoD pledge they are committed to support the air force.
An October 2014 SIGAR report states 20 Italian-made transport planes, G 222, were sitting on the runway as the Afghan air force was not able to get these repaired for lack of spare parts. Later the aircraft were sold as scrap for 32,000 USD.
General Radmanesh, MoD’s deputy spokesperson, denied the sale of the planes, but admitted they were not in flying condition. He would not say how many aircraft in need of repairs was parked on the tarmac. Asked what if anything was going to be done with the grounded planes, he said these would be returned to the manufacturers and new aircrafts would be requested, a decision the government of national unity would take.
A new batch of fighter pilots will graduate on Dec 31, 2017. It is reported that training for 140 are being provided in the US, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the Czech Republic. Eighty Afghan pilots and engineers are being trained in India. Those who go abroad for training are English-speaking.
Misusing privilege
Air Chief General Wardak has appealed to government officials not to requisition air force planes for private use. He recalls the time under King Amanullah in the early part of the 20th century when wealthy merchants and businessmen bought aircrafts for the Afghan air force. General Radmanesh says influential individuals were misusing their privileges by travelling in air force planes and flouting safety guideline by forcing military pilots to remain on duty for 12 to 14 hours.
Waziri, the MoD spokesperson, said the ministry has decided not to entertain requests for the use of military aircraft unless permission of the president has been received.
The Afghan air force was at its strongest between 1988 and 1989 with a fleet of 500 fighter and transport aircraft. Three hundred planes were handed over to the air force by the erstwhile Soviet Union, which had invaded Afghanistan in 1979 to prop up communist rule. The Soviet Union disintegrated in 1991 following a period of openness by then president Mikhail Gorbachev.
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