Afghan Air Force to get 159 Black Hawks, but it doesn’t even have the pilots to fly them

The U.S military is scheduled to provide the Afghan government with 159 UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters as part of an effort to modernize the Afghan Air Force (AAF) and make the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) less reliant on coalition aircraft for their operations. However, a report from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) questions the ability of the Afghans to operate the Black Hawks given a lack of sufficiently trained pilots and ground maintenance personnel.

Aside from the AAF, some helicopters are destined for the elite Special Mission Wing (SMW). Established in 2005, the SMW is the cream of the crop of the AAF. With around 800 men, the unit was initially designed to support counternarcotics operations in Afghanistan. Its superb record and the increasing intensity of the Taliban insurgency, however, led to the SMW expanding its mission set to include counterterrorism operations, ferrying Afghan Special Forces and commandos.