Because the erstwhile Afghan Republic collapsed in mid-August 2021, dozens of planes and helicopters took off from the airfield at Mazar-i-Sharif. The harrowing closing flights of the Afghan Air Power took them, finally, to not Kabul however throughout the border to Termez, Uzbekistan.
Three years later, the 46 Afghan plane that made the flight to Uzbekistan are reporting lastly being transferred to Uzbek authorities. Of the plane that landed in Uzbekistan, 22 had been small fixed-wing plane, like A-29s (additionally known as Tremendous Tucanos), and 24 had been helicopters, principally Mi-17s, but additionally UH-60 Black Hawk and MD-530 helicopters. Among the many fixed-wing plane had been six PC-12 single-engine passenger and light-cargo plane.
“This gear was by no means Afghan, it was American. [The Afghan Republic’s military] used it, however we’ve got at all times been the homeowners,” U.S. Ambassador to Uzbekistan Jonathan Henick advised Kun.uz. When requested concerning the destiny of the plane, Henik responded, “Will probably be in Uzbekistan. Sure, it’s already official.”
Henik’s remark comes just a few weeks after information broke {that a} Colorado-based aerospace and protection firm, Sierra Nevada Co., had been awarded a $64.2 million contract to restore six PC-12s. On August 9, the U.S. Division of Protection printed an inventory of contracts, which included the PC-12 deal. The announcement notes, “Work might be carried out in Uzbekistan and is anticipated to be accomplished by Aug. 7, 2027. This contract entails International Army Gross sales to Uzbekistan.”
Though restore of the A-29s isn’t talked about, it’s value noting that Sierra Nevada Co. companions with Embraer on the manufacturing of A-29s in america. In 2018, the corporate was contracted to construct up Afghanistan’s A-29 fleet. (On the time, that work was slated to be accomplished by December 2024.)
The Taliban authorities in energy in Kabul has constantly pushed again towards the switch of the Afghan plane to Uzbekistan, in addition to the switch of a small variety of plane that landed in Tajikistan to Dushanbe.
The Taliban’s performing Protection Minister Mohammad Yaqoob in January 2022 warned the Uzbek and Tajik governments of “penalties” if they didn’t give up the plane to Afghanistan. Later that yr, in September, he considerably softened his tone when it got here to the Central Asian governments, however reiterated the Taliban’s declare that the plane belong to Afghanistan.
Yaqoob stated on the time, “[The governments of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan] say that the difficulty is that the Individuals don’t allow us to switch these helicopters again to Afghanistan. We now have spoken with Individuals about it and knowledgeable them that they belong to the nation, and it’s Afghanistan’s proper, not another person’s private property. Because of this, it should be returned to Afghanistan.”
In line with a report from Tolo Information, after Henik’s feedback relating to the destiny of the plane in Uzbekistan, the spokesman for the Taliban’s Ministry of Protection, Enayatullah Khwarazmi, strongly objected to the plan in an audio assertion.
“The Ministry of Protection clearly declares that america has no proper to donate or confiscate the property of the Afghan individuals. The federal government of Uzbekistan is anticipated to chorus from any dealings on this regard, to contemplate good neighborly relations, and to make a sensible resolution by cooperating within the return of Afghanistan’s air drive plane,” he stated.
For its half, the Uzbek authorities, whereas partaking diplomatically with the Taliban on issues of commerce and transit, has maintained the argument that the plane in query belong to america. Regardless of the Taliban authorities’s insistence that Tashkent ought to return the planes to Afghanistan, that appears extraordinarily unlikely.
In a Could 2022 interview, Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s particular consultant on Afghanistan, Ismatulla Irgashev, advised VOA, “The U.S. authorities paid for them… It funded the earlier Afghan authorities. So, we imagine it’s completely as much as Washington take care of them… We’ve saved this navy gear in settlement with the U.S. and have advised the Taliban so.”
The majority of the present Uzbek Air Power is comprised of Soviet or Russian plane. In line with Flight International’s 2024 World Air Forces listing, The Uzbek Air Power fields 38 MiG-29s, 20 Su-27s and 13 Su-25s. In regard to fight helicopters, Uzbekistan fields 100 in whole, 40 of that are reportedly Mil Mi-8s. In terms of transport plane, Uzbekistan has 13 energetic planes..
The refurbishment and return to service of the six PC-12s, particularly, will develop the Uzbek Air Power’s capabilities. Nonetheless, the truth that the Afghan planes will not be of Soviet or Russian origin like the remainder of the fleet could pose upkeep challenges; put one other means, they current a possibility for U.S.-Uzbek navy cooperation.
