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Afghan pilots, U.S. mentors head south

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Afghan pilots and their U.S. mentors haven’t focused on southern Afghanistan like their counterparts on the ground because they haven’t had the resources. That is changing. Both more airmen and more aircraft are on their way.

Already, more Americans are in place to train Afghans who will be assigned to a new wing in their air force. On Aug. 15, the U.S. Air Force stood up the 438th Air Expeditionary Training Group, the second group under the Combined Air Power Transition Force.

“We are projecting air corps power in the southern region,” said Lt. Col. Percy Dunagin, the director of operations and squadron commander mentor in Kandahar. “The [Afghan National Army] is out there alongside the coalition fighting the insurgents on a daily basis. Us being able to project air power in the southern region is absolutely huge.”

The Afghan National Army Air Corps expects to officially stand up its Kandahar Air Wing, its second, later this year. Today, it has two Mi-17 helicopters and about 170 airmen. Aircrews and maintainers will rotate from Kabul. By the end of the year, Dunagin said, the wing will have more helicopters — possibly including Mi-35 gunships for armed escort duty — and an AN-32 transport as well about 400 airmen, including its own aircrews and maintainers.

Dunagin and the 30 or so American mentors in Kandahar have helped the Afghans build the wing. When he arrived in February, ANAAC personnel were living in run-down, Soviet-era buildings and had no base of operations to speak of.

“The mentors’ job down here is huge,” Dunagin said. “It’s building a lot of infrastructure, starting from scratch in some areas.”

Now, the Afghans have a new compound adjacent to the sprawling coalition base that includes several dormitories, a dining hall, offices, maintenance facilities, warehouse space and a large hangar. American dollars financed the compound.

The second phase of base development, already under construction, includes an aircraft ramp expansion, dining hall expansion, fire station, base operations center and medical clinic. Later, a second hangar and bulk fuel storage building will be added.

With the base ready to go, the American mentors are eagerly waiting for more Afghan airmen to arrive.

“This is growing day by day,” Dunagin said. “The [mentors] that are here are just waiting to jump in there and train them up and get them doing their jobs.”

The new commander of the CAPTF group, Col. Mark Nichols, thinks his biggest challenge will be training coalition forces to recognize and support the Afghan air corps.

“We’re a very small contingent down here helping Afghanistan do it themselves,” he said. “My biggest job is to mentor the coalition forces on what we’re trying to do in our little contingent.”

Q&A

Airpower in Afghanistan