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חיל האוויר האפגני

סדר הקרב · Afghanistan

חיל האוויר האפגני

د افغانستان اسلامي امارت هوایي ځواک · قوای هوایی امارت اسلامی افغانستان · قوای هوایی افغانستان · د افغانستان هوايي ځواک

The Afghan Air Force has been rebuilt from almost nothing at least four times since King Amanullah’s first aircraft arrived in the early 1920s — by Britain and Italy in the 1930s, by the Soviet Union from the 1950s, by the United States and NATO after 2001 — and each time it outlived the state that built it only in fragments: in 2026 FlightGlobal counts 34 aircraft in the air arm of the Taliban’s Islamic Emirate, while dozens of the Islamic Republic’s aircraft sit in Uzbekistan or have gone to the United States, Ukraine and Peru.

סימון לאומיBlack outer ring, red ring and green centre — the marking of the Islamic Republic until 2021
0מטוסי קרב
7בסיסי אוויר פעילים
1924מְבוּסָס
13סוגים שהוצאו משימוש
Photo: NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan Staff Sergeant Matthew Smith/4th Combat Camera Squadron/ / Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)
מְדִינָהאפגניסטןמְבוּסָס1924סטָטוּספָּעִילמַטֶהKabulמְפַקֵדAmanuddin Mansoor
הסיפור

The Afghan Air Force story: King Amanullah’s aircraft, a war fought from the air and a Taliban air arm

1921–1937: King Amanullah’s aircraft, Soviet pilots and a civil war

King Amanullah Khan saw what aircraft could do when British India bombed Afghan forces in the Third Anglo-Afghan War of 1919, and from 1921 Soviet Russia and Britain gave him a handful of machines; Wikipedia records that Soviet Russia promised free aircraft in July 1921. They became a separate air arm in 1924 — Russian Wikipedia gives 22 August 1924 — and first flew in action against the Khost rebellion of 1924–25. For its first decade, English Wikipedia says, Soviet pilots did most of the flying and perhaps half the aircraft were Polikarpov R-1s, a Soviet copy of the de Havilland DH.9A. The weakness was dependence on foreign crews and on the king himself: most of the aircraft were destroyed in the civil war that began in December 1928 and toppled Amanullah, and serious rebuilding only began in 1937. Afghanistan’s air force therefore began as it would continue — built by outsiders, and hostage to the fate of the government in Kabul.

1937–1978: Hinds, then MiGs — the royal air force turns to Moscow

The second air force was British and Italian. The Shuttleworth Collection, which flies an ex-Afghan Hawker Hind, records a batch of 20 Hinds delivered in 1938, eight new and 12 from the RAF, thought to have served until 1956; Wikipedia adds IMAM Ro.37s and counts about 30 aircraft in 1938. After 1947 the service was the Royal Afghan Air Force. In the Cold War Afghanistan was non-aligned, but the aircraft came from Moscow: by 1960, Wikipedia says, it had about 100 combat aircraft, among them MiG-15 fighters and Il-28 bombers, while Afghan pilots trained in the United States, the Soviet Union, India and Europe. Mohammed Daoud, who deposed King Zahir Shah in 1973, brought in MiG-21s and An-24 and An-26 transports. It looked like modernisation; it also placed a Soviet-trained officer corps at the centre of the state, and that officer corps would soon take it over.

1978–1992: coup, invasion and a war fought from the air

On 27 April 1978 the air force made a revolution. Colonel Abdul Qadir flew to Bagram, took over the MiG-21 regiment, and Su-7s fired rockets into the Arg, the presidential palace, until President Daoud was dead; estimates of the dead range from about 40 (General Nabi Azimi) to about 2,000. In March 1979 Il-28s from Shindand bombed rebellious Herat, where estimates of the dead run from 3,000 to 25,000. After the Soviet invasion of December 1979 the air force grew to perhaps 400 aircraft in the mid-1980s by Wikipedia’s estimate, with regiments at Kabul, Bagram, Shindand and Kandahar, and Soviet, Czechoslovak and Cuban advisers. It bombed and strafed an insurgency backed from Pakistan; Pakistani F-16s, by the PAF’s count, shot down at least eight intruders from Afghanistan in 1986–88. Wikipedia, citing Müller (2020), puts the cost from 1978 to April 1992 at 617 aircraft and 651 aircrew. Air power kept Najibullah’s government alive after the Soviets left in 1989; it could not survive the end of Soviet money.

1992–2001: factions, the Taliban and a forced landing at Kandahar

When Kabul fell to the mujahideen in April 1992 the air force was split among the factions; Wikipedia estimates it fell from about 350 aircraft to some 35–40 serviceable ones. Abdul Rashid Dostum in the north kept his own air arm, and the Taliban, who took Kabul in 1996, inherited what was left at Kandahar and Kabul. Unusually for the movement, Wikipedia notes, they kept the air force’s old structure and invited former communist pilots to serve. By the late 1990s the Taliban air arm counted, by that estimate, five MiG-21MFs, ten Su-22s, a few Mi-8s and Mi-35s, five L-39Cs and transports. Its best-known exploit was the forcing down of a Russian Il-76 by a Taliban MiG-21 over Kandahar on 3 August 1995; its seven crew were held for a year and escaped with the aircraft on 16 August 1996. The US-led campaign from October 2001 destroyed most of what remained, leaving, in Wikipedia’s words, only a few helicopters.

2002–2021: the American rebuild, from G.222 to Black Hawk

The United States and NATO rebuilt the air force from 2005, as the Afghan National Army Air Corps until it was renamed the Afghan Air Force in June 2010. The first choices were poor: 20 Italian G.222 (C-27A) transports, bought for $486 million, could not be kept flying, and 16 were scrapped at Kabul in 2014 for about $32,000. What followed worked better: four C-130Hs from 2013, Cessna 208s and armed AC-208s, MD-530F helicopters from 2015, A-29 Super Tucanos from January 2016, and from September 2017 UH-60A Black Hawks to replace the Russian-supported Mi-17. On 22 March 2018 an Afghan A-29 dropped the service’s first laser-guided bomb. The cost was dependence of a new kind. SIGAR found that Afghan maintainers did at most 40 per cent of the work, and UNAMA recorded that in 2020 Afghan Air Force strikes caused 76 per cent of all civilian casualties from air strikes, the most it had attributed to the air force since 2009.

August 2021 to 2026: flight, collapse and a small Taliban air arm

The contractors left in May and June 2021 and, former generals told SIGAR, about 60 per cent of the Black Hawks were grounded within months. In July 2021 Wikipedia, citing SIGAR, counts 131 usable aircraft. When the Islamic Republic collapsed in August, pilots flew what they could north: Uzbekistan said 22 aircraft and 24 helicopters had entered its airspace, and more than 100 Afghan servicemen landed at Bokhtar in Tajikistan. The air arm of the Taliban’s Islamic Emirate, which most states do not recognise, has since repaired a few aircraft and lost several in crashes; FlightGlobal’s 2025 and 2026 directories list 34 aircraft, among them one A-29 and seven Black Hawks. In August 2024 the US ambassador said the aircraft in Uzbekistan would stay there, which the Taliban’s Ministry of Defence rejected. Since February 2026 the air arm has been at war with Pakistan, whose officials say their strike on Bagram destroyed Afghan aircraft; the Taliban said they struck back with drones. Neither side’s claims have been independently confirmed.

The second air force was British and Italian. The Shuttleworth Collection, which flies an ex-Afghan Hawker Hind, records a batch of 20 Hinds delivered in 1938, eight new and 12 from the RAF, thought to have served until 1956; Wikipedia adds IMAM Ro.37s and counts about 30 aircraft in 1938.Afghan Air Force · verified 2026-09-30

במבט חטוף

The Afghan Air Force in numbers

שֵׁרוּת

שם מקומי
قوای هوایی امارت اسلامی افغانستانDari name of the Islamic Emirate’s air force as given by English Wikipedia; Pashto: د افغانستان اسلامي امارت هوایي ځواک. FlightGlobal calls it the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan Air Force. Under the Islamic Republic it was the Afghan Air Force (قوای هوایی افغانستان). The Ministry of Defence’s own site could not be reached to confirm the spelling
מְבוּסָס
1924 (aircraft from 1921)Russian Wikipedia gives 22 August 1924 for the creation of the air force; English Wikipedia dates the service to 1921, when the first aircraft were promised by Soviet Russia, and says they became a separate air arm in 1924
חלק מ
Afghan Armed ForcesUnder the Ministry of Defence of the Taliban’s Islamic Emirate since August 2021, a government recognised by few states; before that under the Ministry of Defence of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan
מַטֶה
KabulWikipedia gives Kabul; the air force headquarters sits beside Kabul’s international airport, known as Hamid Karzai International Airport until 2021
מְפַקֵד
Amanuddin MansoorPer Wikipedia; appointment date and rank not confirmed from an official Afghan source
שר ההגנה
Mohammad YaqoobTaliban defence minister; quoted in August 2024 warning Uzbekistan and Tajikistan over the aircraft flown there in 2021

כּוֹחַ

Aircraft (2025–2026)
  • Mi-8/Mi-17 — 7
  • UH-60A Black Hawk — 7
  • Cessna 208 — 6
  • MD530F — 5
  • Mi-24 — 4
  • An-32 — 2
  • A-29 Super Tucano, An-26, L-39 — 1 each

34 in all, FlightGlobal World Air Forces 2025; Wikipedia cites the 2026 edition for the same figures. These are estimates by an outside publisher; the Taliban have not published a fleet list

כוח אדם
7,505 in May 2020 under the Islamic Republic, per SIGAR as cited by Wikipedia. The Taliban-led ministry said about five former pilots had returned by 6 February 2022
Aircraft in July 2021
131 usableSIGAR as cited by Wikipedia: 23 A-29, 3 C-130, 23 C-208, 10 AC-208, 12 Mi-17, 28 UH-60 and 42 MD 530; Wikipedia also gives 161 aircraft in all. The War Zone quotes SIGAR’s July 2021 figures as 13 Mi-17s and 49 MD 530Fs, so counts differ by source and by what is counted as usable
Flown out in August 2021
46 to Uzbekistan, more to TajikistanUzbekistan reported 22 aircraft and 24 helicopters; Wikipedia adds two aircraft with more than 100 soldiers at Bokhtar, Tajikistan. The War Zone estimated about a quarter of the inventory escaped
US investment 2005–2021
About 300 aircraftSIGAR: the US provided the Afghan forces with about 300 aircraft as part of nearly $90 billion in security assistance
Peak strength
About 400 aircraft (mid-1980s)Wikipedia’s estimate; a Soviet-era status report cited by Wikipedia gives 226 aircraft and 89 helicopters on 1 February 1986, and Russian Wikipedia about 7,000 personnel in 1985

תַשׁתִית

Main airfields
  • Kabul — air force headquarters
  • Bagram — the largest base, US-held 2001–2021
  • Kandahar
  • Shindand — former training base
  • Mazar-i-Sharif
  • Herat

Wikipedia’s list of bases; Jalalabad, Khost and Kunduz were used by helicopters. Which fields the Taliban air arm flies from today has not been published officially

Soviet-era regiments
Kabul, Bagram, Shindand, Kandahar, DehdadiPer Wikipedia: 322nd and 321st regiments at Bagram, 335th and 355th at Shindand, 366th at Kandahar, 232nd and 377th at Kabul, 393rd training regiment at Dehdadi (Balkh)
NATO training mission
Resolute Support, 2015–2021Hub at Kabul and Bagram, spokes at Mazar-e Sharif, Herat, Kandahar and Laghman; ended September 2021
Bagram in 2026
Struck by Pakistan, 1 March 2026Pakistani officials said the strike destroyed an unknown number of Black Hawks, C-130s and Super Tucanos (as reported by The New York Times and summarised by Wikipedia); no Taliban confirmation was found

מִבְנֶה

How the Afghan Air Force is organised

Since August 2021 the air arm of the Taliban’s Islamic Emirate, a government not recognised by most states, has been run from Kabul under its Ministry of Defence. FlightGlobal counts 34 aircraft, among them one A-29, seven Black Hawks, seven Mi-8/17s and a single L-39; the Taliban have not published a fleet list or which fields each type flies from. Under the Islamic Republic, until August 2021, the Afghan Air Force had wings at Kabul, Kandahar, Shindand and Mazar-i-Sharif.

AM

מְפַקֵדAmanuddin MansoorCommander of the air force of the Islamic Emirate
מפקדת חיל האוויר
מַטֶה

מפקדת חיל האוויר

Kabul

In Kabul, beside the international airport, under the Ministry of Defence of the Taliban’s Islamic Emirate since August 2021, a government not recognised by most states. Wikipedia names Amanuddin Mansoor as air force commander; his rank and appointment date were not confirmed. The defence minister is Mohammad Yaqoob.

Air brigade

Mazar-e-Sharif Air Brigade

Mazar-i-Sharif

The one air unit of the Islamic Emirate named in the sources, reported repairing an A-29 at Mazar-i-Sharif in 2023. FlightGlobal counts 34 aircraft in the air arm, among them seven Black Hawks and seven Mi-8/17s; its other units and their bases have not been published.

Islamic Republic, to 2021

Air wings of the Afghan Air Force

Kabul, Kandahar, Shindand and Mazar-i-Sharif

Under the Islamic Republic the air force had wings at Kabul, Kandahar, Shindand and Mazar-i-Sharif, flying A-29s, C-130Hs, Cessna 208s, MD-530Fs and Black Hawks supplied by the United States. It ended as a state institution when Kabul fell on 15 August 2021; of the 46 aircraft flown to Uzbekistan, seven Black Hawks were moved to the United States in 2025.

Soviet era, to 1992

Air regiments

Kabul, Bagram, Shindand, Kandahar and Dehdadi

The 322nd and 321st regiments at Bagram, the 335th and 355th at Shindand, the 366th at Kandahar, the 232nd and 377th at Kabul and the 393rd training regiment at Dehdadi, per Wikipedia. The air force was split among the factions when Kabul fell to the mujahideen in April 1992.


בשירות

What the Afghan Air Force flies today

כל סוג בטעינה, מקושר לדף ספר החיות שלו במידה וקיים כזה. ספירות הן מטוסים בספרים, לא מטוסים זמינים ביום נתון.

סוּג תַפְקִיד בשירות מֵאָז יחידות הערות
מיל מי-8/מי-17בשירות מסוק תובלה 7 7 per FlightGlobal (2025; same in 2026 per Wikipedia). SIGAR counted 12–13 usable Mi-17s in July 2021; The War Zone counted about 19 Mi-8/17-type helicopters at Termez in August 2021.
Sikorsky UH-60A Black Hawkבשירות מסוק שירות 7 2017 7 per FlightGlobal 2025. SIGAR as cited by Wikipedia: 28 usable in July 2021. 53 requested for FY2017.
Cessna 208 Caravan (C-208 and armed AC-208)בשירות Light transport and armed reconnaissance 6 6 per FlightGlobal 2025. SIGAR as cited by Wikipedia: 23 C-208s and 10 AC-208s usable in July 2021; at least five were seen at Termez.
MD Helicopters MD 530F Cayuse Warriorבשירות מסוק תקיפה קל 5 2015 5 per FlightGlobal 2025. 42 (Wikipedia citing SIGAR) or 49 (The War Zone citing SIGAR) in July 2021.
מיל מי-24/מי-35 הינדבשירות מסוק תקיפה 4 4 per FlightGlobal 2025 (listed as Mi-24; Wikipedia’s table calls them Mi-25). Late-1990s Taliban inventory: five Mi-35s (Wikipedia).
אנטונוב אנ-32בשירות תַחְבּוּרָה 2 2 per FlightGlobal 2025.
אנטונוב אנ-26בשירות תַחְבּוּרָה 1 1975 1 per FlightGlobal 2025; the late-1990s Taliban air arm had about 25 by Wikipedia’s count.
Embraer/Sierra Nevada A-29 Super Tucanoבשירות התקפה קלה 1 2016 1 per FlightGlobal 2025.

יוֹתֵר

Delivered: 22 by September 2020 with six more due (Resolute Support); 24 with the Moody training aircraft (DoD, December 2020); 23 usable in July 2021 (SIGAR via Wikipedia).

Aero L-39 אלבטרוסבשירות מאמן סילון 1 1 per FlightGlobal 2025; the late-1990s Taliban air arm had five L-39Cs (Wikipedia).
מי-177
UH-60A7
C-2086
MD 530F5
מי-244
אנ-322
אנ-261
א-291

הופעל בעבר

Every type the Afghan Air Force has retired

13 types, from the Polikarpov R-1 to the Lockheed C-130H Hercules. נתוני השיא הם מספר שלדי המטוסים שנלקחו תחת אחריות לאורך כל חיי השירות, לא מספר כוחות הצי בכל תאריך נתון.

סוּג תַפְקִיד שִׂיא מוגש הוחלף על ידי הערות
לוקהיד C-130H הרקולס תובלה טקטית 4 2013–2021 Four delivered 2013–2015; three usable in July 2021 (SIGAR via Wikipedia). FlightGlobal lists none in 2025.
פילאטוס PC-12NG Surveillance (Special Mission Wing) 18 18 with the Special Mission Wing per Wikipedia (61 per cent operational in July 2020); about 11 were seen at Termez in August 2021.
Alenia G.222 (C-27A Spartan) תובלה טקטית 20 C-130H 20 bought for $486 million; 16 scrapped at Kabul in 2014, four stored at Ramstein.
Sukhoi Su-7, Su-17 and Su-22 מפציץ קרב Wikipedia’s mid-1980s estimate: 60 Su-7s and Su-17s plus more than 45 Su-22s; ten Su-22s with the Taliban in the late 1990s.
מיקויאן-גורביץ' מיג-21 לוֹחֶם 45 About 45 in the mid-1980s (Wikipedia estimate); five MiG-21MFs with the Taliban in the late 1990s; Russian Wikipedia says the Taliban acquired 15.
Hawker Hind מפציץ קל 20 1938–1956 20 delivered in 1938, 8 new and 12 ex-RAF.
Polikarpov R-1 דו-כנפי סיור 1924–1929 Probably about half the aircraft of the 1920s, per Wikipedia.
מיקויאן-גורביץ' מיג-17 מפציץ קרב 90 Wikipedia’s peak estimate of 90; to be treated as an order of magnitude.
מיקויאן-גורביץ' מיג-19 לוֹחֶם
מיקויאן-גורביץ' מיג-15 לוֹחֶם
איליושין איל-28 מפציץ קל One Wikipedia article gives 45 at the peak; the Afghan Air Force article does not, so the number is left open.
Antonov An-2, An-12 and An-24 תַחְבּוּרָה About 40 An-2, An-24 and An-26 transports in the mid-1980s and six An-12s with the Taliban in the late 1990s (Wikipedia estimates).
IMAM Ro.37 דו-כנפי סיור

בסיסי אוויר

Where the Afghan Air Force flies from

סיכות שחורות הן בסיסים פעילים, סיכות חלולות הן שדות התעופה שנסגרו. Bagram, the largest US base in Afghanistan from 2001 to 2021, has been held by the Taliban since 15 August 2021, and Pakistani officials said they struck it on 1 March 2026. The active fields have been under the Islamic Emirate since August 2021; Dehdadi, the training airfield of the 1980s in Balkh, is listed as closed because its current status could not be established. Entries with no published aerodrome data carry no pin.

בסיס אווירי פעיל סגור או שמורלחץ על סיכה כדי לפתוח את דף הבסיס

אפגניסטן

One of the 7 bases above sits outside Afghanistan, so the world map has to pull back until the home airfields cannot be told apart. The same pins again, without the overseas base.

בָּסִיס ICAO סטָטוּס מַסלוּל הַמרָאָה יחידות ומטוסים
בגרםמחוז פרוואן OAIX פָּעִיל 03R/21L3,724 מטרבֵּטוֹן03L/21R2,953 מטרבֵּטוֹן
Herat International AirportHerat Province OAHR פָּעִיל
  • Afghan Air Force detachment, Herat
נמל התעופה ג'לאלאבאדNangarhar Province OAJL פָּעִיל 13/312,213 m
  • Mi-24 squadron (Afghan Air Force): מיל מי-24
  • Forward Operating Base Fenty (US forces): US Army aviation
נמל התעופה הבינלאומי של קאבולKabul Province OAKB פָּעִיל 11/293,511 mמְרוּצָף
Kandahar International AirportKandahar Province OAKN פָּעִיל 05/233,200 מטר
  • Kandahar Air Wing (2nd Wing, earlier 202nd): Sikorsky UH-60A Black Hawk
  • 366th Fighter Air Regiment
  • 451st Air Expeditionary Wing (US Air Force)
Mazar-i-Sharif International AirportBalkh Province OAMS פָּעִיל
ShindandHerat Province OASD פָּעִיל 18/362,417 mבֵּטוֹן
  • Shindand Air Wing (3rd Wing): Training aircraft and helicopters
  • 335th Mixed Air Regiment
  • 355th Fighter-Bomber Air Regiment: Sukhoi Su-7BM, Sukhoi Su-17/Su-22
DehdadiBalkh Province סָגוּר

אף בסיס אווירי לא תואם את החיפוש הזה.


סדר הקרב

Who is stationed where in the Afghan Air Force

יחידות מעופפות לפי בסיס, היחידות הנוכחיות תחילה. Three generations are listed: the Soviet-era regiments to 1992, the Islamic Republic’s numbered wings to 2021 — the Kabul Air Wing was the 1st, Kandahar the 2nd — and the air arm of the Islamic Emirate, whose units are largely unpublished. Foreign units, such as the Soviet 368th Assault Aviation Regiment and the US 455th Air Expeditionary Wing at Bagram, are marked as foreign.

שדה התעופה בגרם · OAIXMinistry of Defence of the Islamic Emirate
הזרוע האווירית של האמירות האסלאמיתAir force detachment · active
רגימנט קרב אווירי 322
מיקויאן-גורביץ' מיג-21
רגימנט האוויר ה-321
רגימנט תעופת הסער ה-368 (חיל האוויר הסובייטי)1986–1987
סוחוי סו-25
Kabul International Airport · OAKBAir force headquarters, Ministry of Defence of the Islamic Emirate
Air arm of the Islamic Emirate (headquarters)Air force headquarters · active
Kabul Air Wing (1st Wing, earlier 201st)
Embraer A-29 Super Tucano, Lockheed C-130H Hercules, Alenia G.222 (C-27A)
232nd Air Regiment
377th Helicopter Regiment
Kandahar International Airport · OAKNMinistry of Defence of the Islamic Emirate
Kandahar Air Wing (2nd Wing, earlier 202nd)
Sikorsky UH-60A Black Hawk
366th Fighter Air Regiment
451st Air Expeditionary Wing (US Air Force)
Shindand · OASDMinistry of Defence of the Islamic Emirate
Shindand Air Wing (3rd Wing)
Training aircraft and helicopters
335th Mixed Air Regiment
355th Fighter-Bomber Air Regiment
Sukhoi Su-7BM, Sukhoi Su-17/Su-22
Mazar-i-Sharif International Airport · OAMSMazar-e-Sharif Air Brigade, Ministry of Defence of the Islamic Emirate
Mazar-e-Sharif Air BrigadeAir brigade · active
אמבראר A-29 סופר טוקאנו
Mazar-i-Sharif Air Wing (4th Wing, earlier 304th)
Herat International Airport · OAHRMinistry of Defence of the Islamic Emirate
Afghan Air Force detachment, Herat
Jalalabad Airport · OAJLMinistry of Defence of the Islamic Emirate
Mi-24 squadron (Afghan Air Force)
מיל מי-24
Forward Operating Base Fenty (US forces)
US Army aviation

אף יחידה לא תואמת את החיפוש.


ציר זמן

Afghan Air Force milestones, 1914 to today

1921

Soviet Russia promises aircraft to King Amanullah Khan in July; the first machines arrive from Soviet Russia and Britain.

1924

22 August: the air force is created as a separate arm (Russian Wikipedia). It first sees action against the Khost rebellion of 1924–25.

1928

December: civil war begins; most of the aircraft are destroyed and the air force is dissolved in 1929.

1938

20 Hawker Hinds delivered, 8 new and 12 ex-RAF; with Italian Ro.37s the air force counts about 30 aircraft.

1960

The Royal Afghan Air Force has about 100 combat aircraft, including MiG-15s and Il-28s.

1978

27 April: Su-7s from Bagram rocket the Arg palace in the Saur Revolution; President Daoud is killed.

1979

March: Il-28s bomb Herat during the uprising. 25 December: Soviet forces enter Afghanistan.

1986

1 February: 226 aircraft and 89 helicopters on strength, 19,400 personnel (Soviet-era figures cited by Wikipedia). From May, Pakistani F-16s begin shooting down intruders from Afghanistan.

1989

15 February: the last Soviet troops leave; the air force keeps Najibullah’s government in the war.

1990

6 March: pilots loyal to Defence Minister Shahnawaz Tanai bomb Kabul in a failed coup.

1992

April: Kabul falls to the mujahideen; the air force splits among factions after losing 617 aircraft since 1978 (Wikipedia, citing Müller).

1995

3 August: a Taliban MiG-21 forces a Russian Il-76 to land at Kandahar; the crew escape with it on 16 August 1996.

2001

October–November: the US-led campaign destroys most Taliban aircraft.

2010

June: the Afghan National Army Air Corps is renamed the Afghan Air Force.

2016

15 January: the first four A-29 Super Tucanos arrive in Kabul.

2017

18 September: the first four UH-60 Black Hawks arrive at Kandahar.

2021

August: the Islamic Republic collapses; 46 aircraft reach Uzbekistan and others Tajikistan. The Taliban take over what is left.

2026

21 February: war with Pakistan begins; Pakistani officials say a strike on Bagram on 1 March destroyed Afghan aircraft.


שיא קרבי

Every war the Afghan Air Force has fought

גיחות והפסדים היכן שהרקורד נותן להם, וריק אמיתי היכן שלא.

10סכסוכים
1924רֵאשִׁית
617מטוס אבד
651נהרג
  • The Khost rebellion 1924–1925 The new air arm’s first action, against a tribal rising in the south-east
  • The Afghan civil war 1928–1929 Flew for King Amanullah against the rebellion that overthrew him
  • The Saur Revolution 1978 Communist officers seized Bagram and attacked the presidential palace from the air
  • The Soviet–Afghan War 1979–1992 Close support, bombing and transport for the government and Soviet forces against the mujahideen
  • The Afghan civil wars 1992–2001 Remnants of the air force fought for rival factions; from 1996 the Taliban flew MiG-21s and Su-22s against the Northern Alliance

פתח את רישום הקרב המלא


מהמגזין

Afghan Air Force news from Afterburner

Everything MiGFlug’s magazine has published on the Afghan Air Force and the aircraft it flies. רשימה זו מתרעננת מעצמה - סיפורי Afterburner חדשים מופיעים כאן באופן אוטומטי.

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שאלות ותשובות

Everything people ask about the Afghan Air Force

Does Afghanistan still have an air force?
Yes, but a small one. Since August 2021 the air arm belongs to the Taliban’s Islamic Emirate, a government most states do not recognise. FlightGlobal’s World Air Forces 2025 lists 34 aircraft: seven Mi-17s, seven UH-60 בלק הוקס, six Cessna 208s, five MD530Fs, four Mi-24s, two An-32s and one each of the An-26, the A-29 סופר טוקאנו וה- L-39. How many of them fly regularly has not been published.
What is the Afghan Air Force called in Pashto and Dari?
Under the Islamic Emirate English Wikipedia gives the Dari name قوای هوایی امارت اسلامی افغانستان and the Pashto د افغانستان اسلامي امارت هوایي ځواک, both meaning the Air Force of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan; FlightGlobal uses the English form. Under the Islamic Republic it was simply the Afghan Air Force, in Dari قوای هوایی افغانستان. The Taliban-led Ministry of Defence site could not be reached to check its own spelling.
When was the Afghan Air Force founded?
The first aircraft came from Soviet Russia and Britain from 1921, and English Wikipedia uses 1921. They became a separate air arm in 1924; Russian Wikipedia gives 22 August 1924. The service was dissolved after the civil war of 1928–29 and re-formed in 1937, and was called the Royal Afghan Air Force from 1947 to 1973.
What happened to the Afghan Air Force in August 2021?
It collapsed with the Islamic Republic. Pilots flew aircraft to Uzbekistan, which reported 22 aircraft and 24 helicopters, and to Tajikistan, where about 150 personnel landed at Bokhtar. Aircraft left at Kabul airport were disabled by US forces, and the Taliban took over the rest. SIGAR had counted 131 usable aircraft in July 2021, as cited by Wikipedia.
What happened to the Afghan aircraft flown to Uzbekistan?
Most stayed at Termez. The United States took Mi-17 and MD 530 helicopters to Davis-Monthan in Arizona in late 2021 (The War Zone), and seven Black Hawks were moved to the United States, Uzbekistan’s ambassador announced in February 2025. In August 2024 the US ambassador, Jonathan Henick, said the aircraft would stay in Uzbekistan and that the United States had owned them; the Taliban-led Ministry of Defence called any such deal unacceptable and demands their return. A Ukrainian report cited by Khaama says Black Hawks went on to Peru; this was not confirmed officially.
Did Afghan Mi-17s end up in Ukraine?
Yes. Five Afghan Mi-17s were in Ukraine for overhaul when Kabul fell; the United States gave them to Ukraine in March 2022, and with the aid package of 1 June 2022 the number of ex-Afghan Mi-17s transferred or promised reached 20, according to The War Zone.
How big was the Afghan Air Force in the Soviet era?
Wikipedia estimates about 400 aircraft in the mid-1980s, many crewed or serviced by Soviet, Czechoslovak and Cuban advisers, and cites a status of 226 aircraft and 89 helicopters on 1 February 1986. Types included the מיג-21, מיג-17, סו-22, איל-28 ו מי-24. By one count cited on Wikipedia it lost 617 aircraft and 651 aircrew between 1978 and 1992.
Why did the US give the Afghan Air Force Super Tucanos instead of jets?
The A-29 was chosen because it is simple, cheap to run and accurate at low speed against insurgents: US Brig. Gen. Christopher Craige told FlightGlobal it was easy to fly and gave exceptionally accurate weapons delivery. 20 were bought under a $427 million contract, the first four landing in Kabul on 15 January 2016, and more followed, the DoD counting 24 by the end of 2020. On 22 March 2018 an Afghan A-29 dropped the air force’s first laser-guided bomb.
What was the G.222 scandal?
The United States bought 20 refurbished Italian G.222 (C-27A) transports for the Afghan Air Force for $486 million, but they could not be kept flying. In October 2014 SIGAR’s John Sopko revealed that 16 of them had been towed to the far side of Kabul airport and scrapped for about $32,000, about 6 cents a pound; four were stored at Ramstein. Four C-130Hs replaced them from 2013.
Has the Taliban air force lost aircraft since 2021?
Yes, in accidents and, according to Pakistan, in war. Khaama reports a Black Hawk crash in Kabul on 10 September 2022 that killed at least three crew, an MD-530 that hit a power line in Samangan on 21 May 2023 killing two pilots, and a Mi-17 crash in Ghor on 15 May 2024 (one dead, 12 injured, per the Ministry of Defence). In March 2026 Pakistani officials said their strike on Bagram destroyed Black Hawks, C-130s and Super Tucanos; the Taliban did not confirm it, and it has not been independently verified.



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הנתונים אומתו בתאריך 30-09-2026. דפי סדר הקרב נוצרים מחדש ממערך נתונים יחיד; אם מספר כאן אינו תואם לדף בספר החיות, דף זה הוא העדכני מבין השניים.

Photographs: Photo: NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan Staff Sergeant Matthew Smith/4th Combat Camera Squadron/ / Wikimedia Commons (Public domain) · Photo: Staff Sgt. Matthew Smith / Wikimedia Commons (Public domain) · Photo: Staff Sgt. Alexander W. Riedel / Wikimedia Commons (Public domain) · Photo: Senior Airman Maygan Straight / Wikimedia Commons (Public domain) · Photo: Staff Sgt. Perry Aston (USAF) / Wikimedia Commons (Public domain) · Photo: Angelita Lawrence, U.S. Air Force / Wikimedia Commons (Public domain) · Photo: NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan MC2 David Quillen/Public Affairs, KAIA / Wikimedia Commons (Public domain) · Photo: MAS1357 / Wikimedia Commons (CC0) · Photo: Tech. Sgt. Cecilio M. Ricardo Jr / Wikimedia Commons (Public domain) · Photo: Staff Sgt. Russ Scalf / Wikimedia Commons (Public domain) · Photo: NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan / Wikimedia Commons (Public domain) · Photo: ImAGeekNotANerd / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Photo: Photographer’s Name: SSgt. Angelita Lawrence / Wikimedia Commons (Public domain) · Photo: Smolik / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)