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bobdina
08-02-2010, 12:41 PM
Afghan air corps new name a sign of progress

By Michael Hoffman - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Aug 2, 2010 6:03:45 EDT

The Afghan National Army Air Corps has a new name: the Afghan Air Force.

Though still not an independent service like most modern air forces, Afghanistan’s air arm is making rapid progress that the new name symbolizes, say the U.S. airmen who train the Afghans.

Already this year, the Afghan Air Force has added the position of loadmaster — it now has four — and completed its first low-altitude airdrop. The first all-Afghan air crew should fly a mission by September. In 2011, the air arm expects to add thousands of airmen and about 20 more aircraft.

The new name, which went into effect in June, has bolstered the morale of Afghan airmen, according to the American advisers.

“The biggest change is the pride in the name,” said Col. Ken Madura, commander of the 438th Air Expeditionary Advisory Group, which trains the Afghan wing.

Since the renaming, Madura’s counterpart in Kandahar has noticed older airmen acting more as mentors to the younger ones.

“Until the U.S. Air Force and the coalition destroyed their air force in 2001, they were not a part of the army,” said Col. Bernard Mater, who oversees the 738th Air Expeditionary Advisory Group. “Now, the older folks are stepping up and showing the younger guys what it is to be their own independent service.”

The Afghan National Army Air Corps stood up in November with 40 fixed-wing and rotary aircraft. Today, the air force has 50 and plans to add another 21 by this time next year. The fleet is made up of Mi-17 and Mi-35 helicopters, Antonov cargo planes and C-27A transports.

About 3,400 Afghans serve as airmen, according to Brig. Gen. Michael Boera, who, as commander of the Combined Air Power Transition Force, is in charge of developing the Afghan Air Force. End strength should hit 8,000 by 2016, with another 2,300 to 2,600 airmen signed on by next summer, he said.

Afghanistan will launch its first air force-specific recruiting campaign and will increase the number of slots for recruits in its version of officer candidate school at the National Military Academy of Afghanistan, Boera said.

“There has been a push for that so that we can keep the recruiting on track,” he said.

Boera stressed it will take time to build the Afghan Air Force — longer than the Afghan National Army.

“Building an air force takes time,” he said. “It does not keep the pace of the ground force build, where really schooling and training is only needed for a number of weeks.”

Training an airman can take two to five years, depending on his command of English and the expertise needed for the job, Boera said.

Often, advisers must teach basic language as well as technical skills. Many of the technical skills are ones that U.S. airmen take for granted, such as clicking on an icon to open a program, Madura said.

In hopes of reducing training time by as much as a year, NATO has set up a live-in English language lab in Kabul that matches recruits with advisers, Boera said.

Stood up two months ago, Thunder Lab has already grown from 20 to 36 participants. Graduates scored twice as high on tests they took when they arrived at the Defense Language Institute as those Afghan student pilots who did not attend the lab.

“Probably the greatest thing we have done for the advancement of English-language skills, motivation and building a professional air force for tomorrow has been the standup of an aviation English-immersion lab,” Boera said.

As English proficiency increases in the Afghan Air Force, Boera wants airmen to eventually teach each other to speak the language.

In Kandahar, advisers tell of how Afghan airmen are teaching their families English. A pilot brought his 10-year-old son to visit the wing. An American airman asked the boy if he could speak English.

“You bet I can,” the boy told the airman.

http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2010/08/airforce_afghan_training_080210/