Afghanistan Times
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Abdul Zuhoor Qayomi: KABUL: Stressing on importance of credible air power to help the ground forces in the battlefield against insurgents, the Ministry of Defense (MoD) said that efforts are underway to strengthen the Afghan air force with new fighter jets and transport aircrafts.
In an interview with Afghanistan Times, the deputy spokesman of the MoD, Dawlat Waziri, said the US defense ministry has donated six new MB-530 choppers, equipped with missiles and machineguns
He said the helicopters would help the ground forces to defeat the militants easily.
Afghan pilots were trained on the already donated five MB-530 helicopters. Five more helicopters would be donated in near future, he said.
He went on saying that the process to strengthen the air force would continue. “The United States has also vowed to donate twenty Super E29 fighter jets. Training of Afghan pilots is in progress on the jets by the US trainers,” said Waziri.
The E29 fighter aircrafts, which are going to be donated in near future, are equipped with machineguns and have the capability to fire missiles at enemies or bomb them. These jets would help the air force to stand on its feet, the deputy spokesman added.
It is worth to mention that Kabul has sent back the US donated sixteen C-27 aircrafts due to technical problems.
Waziri confirmed it and said the aircrafts were purchased from Italy. He said that all C-27 aircrafts were sent back to Washington due to technical problems.
However, he said that this time the planes would be of high quality.
