The Afghan Air Force (, Dari: ) is the air force branch of the Afghan Armed Forces.
The Royal Afghan Air Force was established in 1921 under the reign of King Amanullah and significantly modernized by King Zahir Shah in the 1960s. During the 1980s, the Soviet Union built up the Afghan Air Force, first in an attempt to defeat the mujahideen and in hopes that strong Afghan airpower would preserve the pro-Soviet government of Mohammad Najibullah. When Najibullah eventually fell in 1992 the Afghan Air Force may have counted 350 aircraft. The collapse of Najibullah's government in 1992 and the continuation of a civil war throughout the 1990s reduced the number of Afghan aircraft to some 35–40. During Operation Enduring Freedom in late 2001, in which the Taliban government was ousted from power, all that remained of the AAF was a few helicopters.
In 2006, the Afghan National Army Air Corps was established, and was renamed the Afghan Air Force in 2010 while remaining part of the Afghan National Army. Since 2007, the U.S.-led Combined Air Power Transition Force, renamed the NATO Air Training Command-Afghanistan in 2010, aimed to rebuild and modernize the Afghan Air Force. It served as the air component of the NATO Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan which was responsible for organising the Afghan Armed Forces. The AAF possessed 161 aircraft in 2021 and had in 2020 over 7,500 personnel. The Resolute Support Mission intended to raise the ranks of the AAF to 8,000 airmen and increase the number of aircraft, which were progressively getting more advanced.
Following the withdrawal of NATO forces in the summer of 2021, in addition to a large-scale offensive by the Taliban, the mostly non-functional Air Force largely disintegrated. This culminated in the Fall of Kabul and President Ashraf Ghani fleeing to the United Arab Emirates. Large numbers of airmen either fled the country or stood down in the face of the Taliban, with many fixed and rotary-wing aircraft being destroyed or captured by the Taliban. Many other fixed and rotary-wing aircraft had flown to neighboring countries. It was reported that 46 aircraft (22 fixed-wing and 24 helicopters) have so far ended up at Termez Airport in Uzbekistan. After the takeover, the Taliban expressed their intention to rebuild the Afghan Air Force and had called on US-trained Afghan pilots to return to Afghanistan.
History
In July 1921, the RSFSR promised to deliver aircraft free of charge to the Afghan government. In 1924 and 1925 the new air force first saw action when it fought against the Khost rebellion. From 1921, the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom provided a small number of aircraft to King Amanullah Khan; who had been impressed with British India's use of aircraft against the Emirate of Afghanistan's forces in 1919, during the Third Anglo-Afghan War. However, the aircraft he was given were not made into a separate air arm until 1924. For the next decade, Soviet pilots performed the bulk of the flying and equipping for the AAF, probably about one-half of the aircraft were Polikarpov R-1s, a Soviet copy of the de Havilland DH.9A. Most AAF aircraft were destroyed in the civil war that began in December 1928, and it was not before 1937 that a serious rebuilding effort began. From the late 1930s until World War II, British Hawker Hind and Italian IMAM Ro.37 aircraft constituted the bulk of the Afghan Air Force, which by 1938 amounted to about 30 planes in service.R. Schnitzler, G.W. Feuchter, R. Schulz (Eds.): Handbuch der Luftfahrt (Manual of Aviation). Jahrgang 1939. p. 11. J.F. Lehmanns Verlag, München & Berlin The Hawker Hind remained in the Afghan inventory until 1957, and as of 2009 one former Afghan Air Force Hawker Hind still flew in the Shuttleworth Collection. In 1947, the Air Force was redesignated the Royal Afghan Air Force (RAAF), a title it retained until further political upheaval in 1973.
By 1960, the Royal Afghan Air Force consisted of approximately 100 combat aircraft including MiG-15 fighters, Il-28 light bombers, transports, and a few helicopters.Ludwig W. Adamec, Historical Dictionary of Afghan Wars, Revolutions, and Insurgencies (Scarecrow Press: Lanham, Md., Toronto, 2005, 2d ed.), pg. 52 Also by that time, a small number of Afghan pilots were undergoing undergraduate pilot training in the United States, while others attended training in the Soviet Union, India, and several European countries. In 1973 King Zahir Shah was deposed and Mohammed Daoud Khan became the country's president. During his five years in power, until the Saur Revolution of 1978, Daoud gained Soviet assistance to upgrade the capabilities and increase the size of the Afghan Air Force, introducing newer models of Soviet MiG-21 fighters and An-24 and An-26 transports. In 1979 the Air Force lost four Mi-8s.Poteri1979 Потери ВВС в Афганистане. Потери 1979 года. Авиация в локальных конфликтах. Дата обращения 23 февраля 2015. Improvements in the early-to-mid-1970s notwithstanding, the Air Force remained relatively small until after the 1979–80 Soviet intervention in Afghanistan. While the Afghan Air Force was equipped with a large inventory – probably some 400 aircraft in the mid-1980s – many of them were crewed and maintained by advisors from Czechoslovakia and Cuba. In many cases, the Soviets were reluctant to entrust Afghan pilots with either the latest aircraft models or high priority missions and, indeed, a number of Afghan pilots were equally reluctant to conduct air strikes against their countrymen. The Afghan Air Force was at its strongest in the 1980s and early 1990s, producing some concern on the part of neighboring countries. The Air Force had at least 7,000 personnel plus 5,000 foreign advisors. At its peak, the Air Force had at least 240 fixed-wing fighters, fighter-bombers and light bombers. Midway through the Soviet–Afghan War, one estimate listed the following inventory:
90 Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17sFlight Magazine 1990 or The Encyclopaedia of World Air Forces 45 MiG-21s – in 1990, three squadrons were reported at Bagram AirfieldFlight Magazine or The Encyclopaedia of World Air Forces 60 Su-7s and Su-17s – Warplane, a British partwork, reported in its issue 21, published in 1985, that some 48 Su-7BMs, without Su-7UM two-seaters, had been supplied from 1970, forming the equipment of two fighter/ground attack squadrons at Shindand Airbase.Orbis Publishing Ltd, 'Sukhoi Su-7 'Fitter' – Soviet Sledgehammer, 'Warplane, Vol. 2, Issue 21, p.413. More accurate information will be found in Gordon, Yefim (2004). Sukhoi Su-7/-17/-20-22: Soviet Fighter and Fighter-Bomber Family. Hinckley, UK: Midland Publishing. ISBN 1-85780-108-3. 45+ Sukhoi Su-22s 150 Mil Mi-8s and Mil Mi-24s 40 Antonov An-26, Antonov An-24, and Antonov An-2 transport aircraft
Additionally, the Afghan Air Force probably operated some 40 or more transports, including the Antonov An-26, Antonov An-24, and Antonov An-2. Another estimate in 1988 painted a more detailed picture of the Afghan Air Force: 322nd Air Regiment, Bagram Air Base, three fighter squadrons with 40 MiG-21s 321st Air Regiment, Bagram Air Base, three fighter/bomber squadrons with Su-7/Su-22 393rd Air Regiment, Dehdadi Air Base (Balkh), three fighter/bomber squadrons with MiG-17s 355th Air Regiment, Shindand Airbase, 3 bomber squadrons with Il-28s and one fighter/bomber squadron with MiG-17s. Russian sources now say that the 335th Mixed Aviation Regiment was armed with up to thirty-two Il-28s, which were based at Shindand. The Il-28 was used in combat until January 1985, when during a sabotage by the mujahideen with the help of bribed guards at the airport, almost all the bombers were destroyed. 232nd Air Regiment, Kabul Airport, three helicopter squadrons with Mi-4, Mi-6, and Mi-8 with one squadron of Mi-8s detached to Shindand 377th Air Regiment, Kabul Airport, four helicopter squadrons with Mi-25s and Mi-17s ? Air Regiment, Kabul Airport, two transport squadrons with An-2, An-26/30, and one VIP transport squadron with one Il-18 and 12 An-14s two attack helicopter squadrons with Mi-24s at Jallalabad and Kabul Air Force Academy, Kabul, with Yak-18s and L-39s Air Defense Forces consisting of two SAM regiments at Kabul, an AAA Battalion at Kandahar, and a radar regiment at Kabul
On February 1, 1986, the staffing of military equipment and personnel of the Air Force and Air Defense was: Personnel - 19,400 people Aircraft - 226, of which 217 (96%) were combat-ready helicopters - 89, of which 62 are combat-ready
The Mil Mi-24 and Mi-35 (export model) attack helicopters have a long history in Afghanistan. The aircraft was operated extensively during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, mainly for attacking mujahideen fighters. Early in the war, the only anti-air weapons of the mujahideen were Soviet made shoulder-launched, heat-seeking SAMs and American Redeye, which had either been captured from the Soviets or their Afghan allies or were supplied from Western sources. Many of them came from stocks the Israelis had captured during their wars with Soviet client states in the Middle East. Owing to a combination of the limited capabilities of these early types of missiles, poor training and poor material condition of the missiles, they were not particularly effective.Yakubovich, Nikolay. Boevye vertolety Rossii. Ot "Omegi" do "Alligatora" (Russia's combat helicopters. From Omega to Alligator). Moscow, Yuza & Eksmo, 2010, , pp.164–173.
Beginning in 1986, the US supplied the mujahideen with its state-of-the-art heat-seeking missile, the FIM-92 Stinger, which the Afghans employed with devastating effect. In the first use of the Stinger in Afghanistan, mujahideen fighters downed three of eight unsuspecting Soviet Mi-24 Hinds as they approached the airfield at Jalalabad on a late September afternoon. Some scholars point to that event in 1986 as the turning point in the war. Moreover, for most of the remainder of the war when Stingers were known to be present, Soviet and Afghan aircraft elected to remain at higher altitudes where they were less vulnerable to the missile, but also less effective in ground attacks. Although employed extensively throughout the war as a ground attack platform, the Hind suffered from a weak tail boom and was found to be underpowered for some missions it was called upon to perform in the mountains of Afghanistan, where high density altitude is especially problematic for rotary-wing aircraft.
Overall, the Hind proved effective and very reliable, earning the respect of both Soviet and Afghan pilots as well as ordinary Afghans throughout the country. The mujahideen nicknamed the Mi-24 the "Devil's Chariot" due to its notorious reputation.
After the Soviet withdrawal and the departure of foreign advisors, the Air Force declined in terms of operational capability. With the collapse of the Najibullah Government in 1992, the Air Force splintered, breaking up amongst the different mujahideen factions in the ongoing civil war. By the end of the 1990s, the Taliban maintained five supersonic MiG-21MF and 10 Sukhoi Su-22 fighter-bombers.York, Geoffrey. The Globe and Mail, "Military Targets Are Elusive. Afghanistan Army Called a Haphazard Operation", 19 September 2001. They also held six Mil Mi-8 helicopters, five Mi-35s, five L-39Cs, six An-12s, 25 An-26s, a dozen An-24/32s, an IL-18, and a Yakovlev.Jane's Sentinel Security Assessment, 2001 The Afghan Northern Alliance/United Front operated a small number of helicopters and transports and a few other aircraft for which it depended on assistance from neighboring Tajikistan.
From the Saur Revolution until the Fall of Kabul in April of 1992, the Afghan Air Force lost 617 aircraft and 651 crew members. Many were shot down by American Stinger missiles provided to the Mujahideen through Operation Cyclone.