The Air Force delivered four A-29 planes to Afghanistan Friday, just one month after the first Afghan pilots and maintainers for the close-air support aircraft completed their training in the U.S.
The aircraft will be added to the Afghan Air Force's inventory in the spring, according to an Air Force release.
Eight pilots and 12 maintainers graduated Dec.18 from Moody Air Force Base, Georgia, after 337 days of training, officials said. The pilots are the first of 30 who will be trained by the 81st Fighter Squadron — a unit solely created to train the Afghan pilots and crewmen — in the next three years.
Instructors with the 81st assigned to the program, dubbed Train, Advise, Assist Command-Air or TAAC-Air, in coming months will advise their counterparts on "continued development of close air support, aerial escort, armed overwatch and aerial interdiction," the release said.
"This rapidly developed program for Afghanistan is unique for the A-29 development because this is the first time [U.S. Air Force] pilots and maintainers have been trained as instructors to conduct training for Afghan students in the United States," said Brig. Gen. Christopher Craige, the commanding general at TAAC-Air.
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The program is designed to teach the pilots how to best defend Afghanistan from insurgents, including but not limited to the Taliban, the Islamic State group and the Haqqani network.
"It can fly at low speeds and low altitudes, is easy to fly, and provides exceptionally accurate weapons delivery," Craige said. "It is currently in service with 10 different air forces around the world."
The U.S. has also provided the Afghans with light MD-530 helicopters, each equipped with two .50-caliber machine guns, even though their ability to aid in operations has had mixed reviews given the terrain in the region.
Lt. Gen. Charles Brown, head of U.S. Air Forces Central Command, told Air Force Times in November, that providing these helicopters is still a "step in the right direction."
"A brand new air force like this, they’re not going to have some high-tech weaponry," Brown said.
Oriana Pawlyk covers deployments, cyber, Guard/Reserve, uniforms, physical training, crime and operations in the Middle East, Europe and Pacific for Air Force Times. She was the Early Bird Brief editor in 2015. Email her at opawlyk@airforcetimes.com.
Follow her on Twitter @Oriana0214.
