India completed the delivery of the final Mi-24 gunship to the Afghan Air Force (AAF) as part of New Delhi’s ongoing reconstruction effort with the delivery of the 4 gunships marking the first lethal weaponry supply to the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF).
The Afghan Air Force (AAF) said the last of the 4 Mi-24 gunships was delivered to the Afghan Air Force on Saturday. AAF further added that a number of the Indian Air Force personnel also arrived in Kabul to complete the delivery of the final gunship to the Afghan forces. This comes as diplomatic sources said late in August that “The fourth helicopter is yet to be transferred. It needs spares before it can be made fully operational and the spares have to come from Russia.”
The sources further added that efforts were on to fix the issue. “There was an issue with the spares. It is being sorted out. It should be delivered very soon,” a senior defence official said without specifying a timeframe.
Afghanistan received three of the four Mi-25 gunship helicopters from India late in the month of December last year and days before the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Kabul.
The decision for the delivery of Mi-25 gunship helicopters was concluded during the recent visit of Afghan National Security Adviser Mohammad Hanif Atmar to New Delhi.
India has remained one of the key donors for the reconstruction of Afghanistan following the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001.
Since 2002, the Government of India has committed USD 2 billion dollars to the socio-economic rebuilding of the Afghan state and society in accordance with the development priorities of the Government and the people of Afghanistan.
