Work on the contract, announced Tuesday by the Department of Defense, will be performed at Moody Air Force Base, and Kabul, Kandahar, and Mazari Sharif Air Bases in Afghanistan. The contract is expected to be completed by December 2024 and falls under foreign military sales.
The contract comes from funds appropriated for the Afghanistan Security Forces, with $115,478 being obligated at the time of award for a site survey in Afghanistan.
The Afghan government has been struggling to develop its own air forces despite heavy U.S. investment and training, and the Afghan military is still highly dependent on U.S. air support. The AAF's inventory is a mixture of Russian, American and other nation's helicopters and light aircraft
The Afghan's still rely on legacy and recently purchased Soviet-era platforms like the Mi-17 Hip transport and Mi-24 Hind attack helicopters. Many air systems purchased for the AAF since the U.S. invasion in 2001 have been of little utility due to lack of trained personnel and maintenance capabilities.
The AAF and its U.S. military partners have been taking a different approach with the purchase of light planes like the A-29 Super Tucano turboprop attack plane.
Light planes like the A-29 Super Tucano and the Textron Aviation AT-6B Wolverine are being proposed for attack roles in the U.S. and allied air forces as well. Their relatively low cost and ease of maintenance make them well suited for continuous counterinsurgency roles when there is little advanced anti-aircraft resistance expected.
They are capable of carrying weapons like .50 caliber machine guns, rockets and other ordinance as well as reconnaissance sensor pods and other gear.
| The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, is Copyright 1995-2026 Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principles for news reporting and research purposes. |
