Jungle Airman helps train Afghan officers on command, control

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Zachary Wilson
  • U.S. Air Force Central combat news team
KABUL, Afghanistan (AFNS) --  American Airmen graduated 16 senior Afghan air corps officers following a four-week-long course on command and control operations Jan. 24 at the Kabul International Airport.

Air Force advisers from the 438th Air Expeditionary Wing and the 438th Air Expeditionary Advisory Group taught the Afghan Command and Control Center Course as the country's military continues to grow in both size and ability.  Among the advisor's, Pacific Air Force's 13th Air Force Maj. Dave Milner, currently deployed as the 438th AEG advisor, had a significant role in the training.

"These officers were formerly air defense and radar operators, and I was initially concerned about whether or not they were going to keep moving forward (as we transition to the Air Corps Control Center mission with them)," said Gen. Darwan, the Afghan national army air corps commander. "However, these officers are very experienced and talented and we are pleased with their progress. We will grow this (function) just as we are growing the air corps as a whole."

The Afghan officers -- who range in rank from brigadier general to captain -- will form the initial cadre who will be charged with training the Afghan air corps members who come after them, said Major Milner.

"(Having an air corps control center) will give the air corps the capability to control all Afghan airpower within the country's boundaries and eventually internationally," said Major Milner, who is a C-17 Globemaster III pilot deployed from Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii. "What we have essentially designed here is a small-scale version of a combined air and space operations center. The Afghan air corps obviously has a way to go toward getting that capability, but this is the first step."

The current Afghan national army air corps is almost exclusively mobility based and the current air corps control center reflects that mission but beginning in 2011, the role of the control center will expand to include combat operations capabilities and "in the far future, I anticipate they should have all the components of command and control needed to have the ability to create air tasking orders" as is done in the U.S. Air Forces Central's Combined air and Space Operations Center facility, Major Milner said.

Though the officers were very experienced, there were some challenges that had to be met by Major Milner and the other Air Force advisory staff.

"They were taught a lot of what they know through old Soviet-era doctrine," he said. "In order to make them effective, we had to show them the Western perspective, and they really learned from it."

By having a centralized location to control all of its air assets and a group of highly trained and skilled air corps leadership, the government of Afghanistan will be able to effectively deploy airpower to its far expanses to support a variety of missions, whether that is troop movements, medical evacuation or humanitarian relief.

"(The ACCC) is so important to make the air corps the effective and powerful instrument it can be in the future," Brig. Gen. Walter D. Givhan, the 438th Air Expeditionary Wing commander, told the graduates in English after addressing them in their native Dari language. "Let's go forward together."