New York Times: U.S. Is Struggling in Its Effort to Build an Afghan Air Force
KABUL, Afghanistan — Col. Qalandar Shah Qalandari, Afghanistan’s most decorated pilot, recently took command of what was meant to be the building blocks of his country’s new air force: a squadron of shiny American-made attack helicopters, intended to solve the chronic lack of close air support for Afghan troops.
Sixteen of the armed MD-530 scout helicopters were rushed here this year to great fanfare, and a dozen more are to join them. But Colonel Qalandari was not impressed. “This plane is a total mess,” he said. “To be honest, I don’t know why we have this plane here.”
An Afghan public affairs officer tried to shush the colonel as he spoke to a journalist at the Afghan Air Force base at Kabul airport. A United States Air Force public affairs officer looked on aghast.
But Colonel Qalandari kept on: “I will tell the truth. This is my country, and these are my men, and they deserve the truth.”
WNU Editor: The helicopter looks impressive (see the above video) .... but if you cannot engage the enemy it becomes a piece of junk.
2 comments:
This has been a "known" problem since the Soviet adventure in the 80's.
The Soviet era Mil-35 Hind variants that the Afghans were experienced in operating and maintaining were worn out and the U.S. And it's Allies refused to provide spare parts, or replace the airframes.
Instead, the U.S. Supplied the unarmoured. short range, low loiter time, under armed MD350,
Because at the time, U.S. Policy was that the occupation of Afghanistan was never supposed to end.
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