In its latest report, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction office has warned that millions of dollars spent on purchase of aircrafts for Afghanistan’s military will be wasted if the present capacity of Afghans is not improved. The report said that US Department of Defense was spending $771.8 million on aircrafts that Afghans cannot operate and maintain.
The report pointed out that Afghans “lack the capacity --- both in personnel number and expertise --- to operate and maintain the existing and planned” aircraft the Pentagon buys for them.
The aircrafts are meant for the Afghan Special Mission Wing or SMW, which is supposed to provide air support to official Afghan forces fighting the militants.
The report points out that as of Jan 23, 2013, the SMW had just 180 personnel, less than one-quarter needed to reach the full strength.
The NATO training mission Afghanistan and the Pentagon don’t have a plan that identifies milestones and final dates for achieving full SMW personnel force strength to justify the approval fleet.
On-going recruiting and training challenges have slowed down SMW growth. These challenges include finding Afghan recruits who are literate and can pass the strict, 18 to 20 months US vetting process, a process that attempts to eliminate candidates that associations with criminal or insurgent activity.
The report also notes that the Afghan Ministry of Defence and Ministry of Interior have not come to agreement on command and control structure of the SMW, which also adversely impacts SMW growth and capacity.
The Pentagon also has not developed a plan for transferring maintenance and logistics management functions to the Afghan personnel, which would keep the problem unresolved.
Currently, Pentagon contractors perform 50 percent of the maintenance and repairs to the SMW’s current fleet of 30 Mi-17s and 70 percent of the critical maintenance and logistics management, as well as procurement of spare parts and material.
The report did not come as a shock as similar news were in the media a number of months ago that a number of aircrafts of National Air Force had gone out of shape due to negligence and lack of professional maintenance.
This report is an eye-opener for the responsible authorities that we cannot afford any kind of negligence because Afghan government and economy are not in position to afford such aircrafts time and again and in such circumstances, the best and practical way is to use the available aircrafts wisely and keep them in better shape. Any kind of negligence in this regard should not be compromised and the responsible culprits should be dragged through a strict process of penalties and punishment.