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The Afghan Air Force weapons conversion course
at Dehdadi and Mazar-i-Sharif airport
In the eighties two Soviet training school (Krasnodar and Frunze flying colleges) and the Afghan 393rd Training Air Regiment (at Dehdadi airfield and Mazar-i-Sharif airport) have trained Afghan fighter and helicopter pilots en masse, but unfortunately these were young inexperienced soldiers only.
In the second half of the 1980s, training centres were set up in the Soviet Union and Afghanistan to provide weapon combat training for those fresh out of school.
The old Afghan MiG-17 ‘Fresco-A’ type were no longer fit for purpose and were replaced by new types in the mid-eighties. The Soviet Union supplied second-hand MiG-21UM ‘Mongol-B’ two-seat trainer aircraft. While from Bagram, the old MiG-21FL ‘Fishbed-D’ fighters were regrouped at Mazar-i-Sharif airport to replace the old MiG-17 ‘Fresco-A’ and MiG-15UTI ‘Midget’ types.
The photos above were taken in 1987/88. The Afghan Air Force weapons conversion course had eighteen older MiG-21FLs ‘Fishbed-D’ and MiG-21UM ‘Mongol-B’ stationed at the Dehdadi and the Mazar-i-Sharif airfield in the late 1980s.
At the Mazar-i-Sharif and Dehdadi airfield the young Afghan pilots who graduated locally or came from the Soviet Union completed a weapons conversion course here. Here they learned tactics to attack rebel positions effectively and safely with bombs and rockets. The old MiG-21FL/UMs ‘Fishbed-D/Mongol-B’ and Mi-8Ts ‘Hip-C’ were still suitable for this in the second half of the 1980s.
The Afghan Air Forces weapons conversion course was supported by Soviet advisers too at Mazar-i-Sharif and Dehdadi airfields until the late 1980s.
On the photo: Soviet advisors arming a Mi-8T ‘Hip-C’ helicopter at Dehdadi airfield in 1981.
Basic weapons training at the Afghan 393rd Traning Air Regiment started earlier in the early 1980s, on Mi-8T ‘Hip-C’ and L-39 Albatros types.
Photos:Ria Novosti Andrey Solomonov and Ivan Pilnikov collections
Photos: Ria Novosti - Andrey Solomonov and Ivan Pilnikov collections