Air Force News, news from Iraq - Air Force Times

Rebuilding Afghanistan’s air corps

KABUL INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, Afghanistan — The Afghan National Army Air Corps’ sprawling new $183 million campus could make any American airman jealous.

When the Afghan crews and their American trainers move into this space in mid-October, they will enjoy spacious hangars, new barracks and a dining hall, meticulously planned office buildings, a 600-seat conference center, flight simulators and a morale, recreation and welfare center with a gym, clinic and barber shop.

It’s a far cry from the decrepit buildings the air corps now occupies. The tarmac where they keep their aircraft is so rundown, crews have to pick up rocks and loose gravel so that taxiing aircraft aren’t damaged.

But the new campus is more than just a facilities upgrade — it’s an investment in Afghanistan’s fledgling fleet of aircraft, the men who fly and maintain them, and the country’s ability to provide for itself.

Video

Standing up the Afghan National Army Air Corps

The country, which is the size of Texas, has no rail lines, limited and shoddy roads and an unstable security situation, said Air Force Maj. Gen. Jay Lindell, assistant commanding general for Combined Air Power Transition Force.

“Air mobility is a key element” to Afghanistan’s growth and success, he said.

The transition force oversees the Air Corps Advisory Group, about 90 American service members and civilians who mentor and work daily with the Afghan troops.

Just one year ago, the Afghan air corps was virtually nonexistent and ineffective, and the country’s once-strong air corps was a fading memory.

Before 1992, Afghanistan had a thriving air corps, with 400 aircraft and 400 pilots, said Brig. Gen. Abdul Wahab Wardak, commander of the Kabul Air Wing. “But we destroyed it by our own hands in the civil war” that included ethnic factions and the Taliban movement, Wardak said through an interpreter .

Today, the corps has 27 operational aircraft, three times more than what it had last year, Lindell said. The fleet includes seven Antonov 32 Soviet cargo planes, three Mi-35 gunships and 17 Mi-17 medium-lift helicopters. Three of its Mi-17s are reserved for presidential airlift missions.

The transition force is part of Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan, which is in charge of training and building the Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police.

The corps moves 6,000 to 8,000 troops a month, compared with 500 to 600 a month last year.

Pilots delivered about 220,000 pounds of cargo in August; the average before that was 80,000 to 90,000 pounds a month.

It now flies about 800 sorties a month, a marked increase from the 200 to 300 monthly sorties it flew six months ago. Crews also conducted more than 50 medical and casualty evacuation missions in August.

Most of the aircraft, which are refurbished and purchased or donated from other countries, are based at Kabul’s airport, but some also are based in Kandahar and Herat.

Planning to triple the size

During the next eight years, Lindell and his staff plan to transform the air corps into a fully operational organization. About $100 million has been planned for each of those years for sustainment costs, including buying ammunition and fuel. Pilot candidates soon will receive training in the U.S. The air corps will more than triple, growing from about 2,200 Afghans to 7,500 personnel. Eight more Mi-17s will be added to the fleet over the next eight months.

The air corps eventually will have two air wings, one each in Kabul and Kandahar; regional corps support squadrons in Jalalabad, Shindand and Mazar e Sharif; and detachments in Herat and Gardez.

The locations for these units were chosen based on where the Afghan army is based, Lindell said.

The driving force behind the air corps’ seemingly rapid turnaround is a larger, more concentrated effort to build its capability, Lindell said.

The U.S. began working with the air corps in May 2007, but when Lindell took command a year ago, he and his much larger staff continued to build on the ideas that had been put forward by the original nine-person team.

The pilots and crews are making progress, but huge challenges still stand in the way, Lindell said. “We’re only just beginning to develop mobility capability.”

Air Force Col. Robert MacDonald, chief of the Air Corps Advisory Group, said of the air corps, “You have to be prepared to do and grow ... and the only way to do that is through training.”

Most pilots in the air corps now are Soviet-trained; many have not flown in years, and many of them are in their mid-40s. Some of their aircraft are 30 years old, and in the last year, four helicopters were damaged during training. In addition, almost all of the aircraft in the fleet will reach the end of their service lives within the next eight years, which means they may be looking for new aircraft with better capability, such as night vision.

Lindell said there is a request to have the American trainers, most of whom are from the Air Force, serve 12-month tours instead of the six months they do now.

In addition, the first group of 48 pilot candidates will be sent in March to the U.S. for training. The Navy will train the rotary-wing pilots while the Air Force will train fixed-wing pilots.

The training could take 15 months to two years, Lindell said, and it will include English language training and at least a year of pilot training.

The goal is to be able to provide training in Afghanistan in 2011 and have almost 300 qualified pilots and 121 operational aircraft by 2017.

Lessons all around

Marine Gunnery Sgt. AJ Towle, a rotary-wing mentor, said his work has been a learning experience both for him and the Afghans he works with.

“The challenge is working with people who have been doing something one way for 30 years and trying to change that,” he said. “The progress that I see, it’s still in the infant stages ... [but] they’ll work until it’s done. They have the knowledge. It’s just breaking those habits.”

His charges know how to maintain their aircraft, he said, but they need to learn the safe and proper way to do so and how to use the right equipment and certified parts.

Other challenges include the language barrier and working to build a better supply system.

“It’s hard getting parts and proper tools,” he said. “They still have a lot to catch up, but they’re making strides.”

Air Force Master Sgt. Christopher Lipphardt is an Antonov 32 fixed-wing mentor.

“Our mission is to make sure my job goes away from here and make sure the Afghans are able to sustain fixed-wing operations for the Afghan Air Corps,” he said.

He shared the same frustrations as Towle, adding that simple safety measures such as safe aircraft movement on the flight line, and picking up foreign objects from the flight line and tool control, can sometimes be a challenge.

“What we consider standard practices in the United States don’t always translate,” he said.

But he also sees progress, adding that he’s starting to see his Afghan counterparts thinking outside the box a little more and taking more initiative.

Afghan Col. Abdul Naser, the fixed-wing maintenance commander and chief engineer for the fixed-wing squadron, has 25 years of experience with various aircraft.

“It’s very good to work with the Americans,” he said. “They are here and they’re helping us out.”

Still, he acknowledged that it will take time to build the air corps.

“We have a lot of different difficulties and we’re trying to overcome them,” he said. “We are hoping that in the future, we’ll have a very strong air corps.”