Russia To Equip Afghan Military With Gunships
KABUL: (Middle East Press) Russian representative to Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov said the other day that his country was ready to send more gunships to Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF).
At the sideline of the Shanghai Organization Summit, President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani asked his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to assist Afghanistan with MI35 choppers, Kabulov quoted.
During the meeting of the two countries’ presidents, Putin said: “We are ready to cooperate with Afghanistan in this regard,” he added however it should have been done by US, Kabulov added. Although, the Afghan air forces could have had considerable improvements up to now, but close air support is still remained as a challenge, and we hope it will be solved soon, ministry of defense senior officials said.
Due to lack of gunships, the defense ministry has equipped its transport planes with heavy arms to support the army forces in battlefields in suppressing the armed insurgents, Gen. Afzal Aman, a ministry’s official said. The national army air forces need further training which is impossible in short-term periods, Gen. Aman further said. Access in air forces in short time is impossible, we don’t want to have air equipment and not to be able to use them in good ways, Gen. Aman added.
The ministry’s officials assure the Afghan people that their national army forces are completely ready and the enemies of the country cannot weak the people’s moral with their threats. Meanwhile, a number of political and military experts said, that they trust in Afghan security forces capabilities. They believe that the withdrawal of foreign forces doesn’t mean Afghanistan is forgotten, but under the Resolute Support (RS) mission, now they focus on equipping, training and advice of the Afghan security forces, particularly the national army air forces. Regarding equipping of the Afghan security forces, I’d like to say that they not only need to be equipped now but for years, Amir Mohammad, a political and military expert said. Equipping Afghan air forces is a must in order to fight against insurgents’ attacks, he added. Afghan security forces don’t access to tank, heavy arms, gunships, etc. so if the foreign countries want the Afghan forces can fight against armed insurgents, they have to equip them with what they need, he went on to say. This is while that however the NATO countries’ forces were present in Afghanistan for more than a decade, but unfortunately still the Afghan security forces lack enough military equipment, and now as they are independently defending the country, it is expected that the international community to cooperate in training and equipping the ANSF.
