With its ageing pilots flying Soviet-era aircraft, Afghanistan's fledgling air force will not be ready to support its own troops in combat before 2013, a US Air Force official said Wednesday.
Brigadier General Jay Lindell, who is heading the eight year US effort to build the Afghan National Army Air Corps, told reporters here that the main impediment to moving more quickly is a lack of pilots.
The Afghan air corps currently has 180 pilots, but only about 50 fly every day, he said.
Lindell, speaking to reporters via video link from Afghanistan, said they are "very good stick and rudder pilots. They can fly the missions they are assigned today."
But he added, "they are day pilots, they don't fly a lot of night operations, and they do not fly operations in the weather generally."
They are also old. Their average age is 43 and many are nearing mandatory retirement.
"There are some pilots that haven't flown in 15 years. And the Afghan air corps has not trained a new pilot since 1992," Lindell said.
The United States will begin training new pilots at a rate of 48 a year in fiscal 2009.
But it will be at least three years before the Afghan air force gets its first light attack aircraft and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft, he said.
The light attack aircraft will be a single engine turbo prop plane capable of using laser guided weapons and share a computer network with other aircraft, he said.
"Initially as we envision it, it will be a US-led squadron as we train the Afghans how to do close air support, and how to integrate with the ground forces in the close air support mission," Lindell said.
"So it will be in 2013 to 2014 before the Afghan air force is certified in a close air support mission," he said.
In the meantime, the Afghan air corps will add Antonov-32 transport planes, M-17 transport helicopters and C-27 transport planes, expanding its existing fleet of Soviet-era aircraft from 22 to 61 by 2011.
