Air Wing Sea Knight N38TU, involved in US withdrawals from both Vietnam and Afghanistan | |
Office overview | |
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Formed | 1986 |
Type | Aviation support |
Jurisdiction | Executive branch of the United States |
Headquarters | Patrick Space Force Base, Florida [1] |
Employees | 60 (excluding contractors) |
Annual budget | USD$1 billion (2020) [2] |
Parent department | United States Department of State |
Parent bureau | Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs |
Website | state |
The State Department Air Wing (DoSAW), formally the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs Office of Aviation (INL Air Wing or INL/A) is an office of the United States Department of State that supports diplomatic aviation needs falling outside the legal authority or scope of the U.S. Air Force. [3] [4]
INL's fleet of roughly 200 is composed mostly of vintage aircraft and surplus military helicopters, so as to ease maintenance in austere environments and decrease the cost of upkeep for developing governments that often receive the aircraft. Its aircraft fly more than 13,000 hours annually in support of missions related to counternarcotics, counterterrorism, border security, law enforcement, and embassy transportation. [5] Because of the size and diversity of the fleet and the demands of its global operations, the Air Wing is sometimes referred to as "America's other air force." [6]
Air Wing dates to 1978, when the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs was used as the conduit to provide excess U.S. government aircraft to foreign nations to support counternarcotics efforts. [7] Early missions involved crop dusting over drug-production fields in Mexico, Colombia, and Burma. In the early 1980's operations expanded Guatemala and Colombia. [7] In 1984, the Department purchased its first aircraft, a T-65 it used for aerial eradication of illicit drug crops in cooperation with the government of Mexico. The following year, operations began in the Caribbean and Belize. [8]
As the War on Drugs grew, the fleet of aircraft became a larger part of the Department's counternarcotics mission, and in 1986 Congress authorized the creation of a dedicated air wing for the department. [3] Despite the limited scope of its origins, the mission quickly expanded as the needs of the department grew, and the office now services the needs of “counter-terrorism, border security/law enforcement, and embassy transportation missions.” [7]
In five of the seven countries where the Air Wing operates, contractors work with local military and law enforcement, and often fly aircraft painted in the insignia of those nations. Through bilateral agreements, Air Wing contractors are embedded directly with the Bolivian Air Force, the Colombian National Police, the Guatemalan Air Force, the Pakistani Frontier Corps, and the Peruvian National Police. Only in Iraq and Afghanistan were Air Wing personnel not directly embedded with another force. [9]
Often the Air Wing trains foreign partners in the maintenance and operation of the aircraft before donating or selling the aircraft to that nation. [9]
Several times a year the Air Wing also provides humanitarian assistance in disasters when requested by the Department, including during floods in Bolivia and Pakistan in 2010.
As of January 2018, the Air Wing employed 206 aircraft of a variety of types, including various fixed wing aircraft, rotorcraft, and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV); this figure is down from a high of 240 in 2010. [7] The office's cooperative model with often poor and developing partner nations has resulted in its fleet being composed heavily of refurbished, second-hand aircraft, and a number of newer but cheaper models that partner nations can afford to maintain when the aircraft is transferred.
The Air Wing has increasingly moved away from the Sikorsky S-61T as it acquires CH-46 Sea Knights from the U.S. Marine Corps, as the latter seeks to replace it with V-22 Osprey tiltrotors. [10]
Fixed-wing assets include the popular Cessna 208 Caravan and the Air Tractor AT-802 crop duster, the latter used to spray herbicides over drug fields. In the last decade, Air Wing Huey IIs and C-27A transports have deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan to help develop the air forces of those countries.
Previously, the Air Wing maintained a fleet of Fairchild-Dornier 328s, [6] North American Rockwell OV-10 Broncos, [11] and deeply obsolete Douglas DC-3s. [6]
In 2021, the Air Wing added ex-US Army HH-60L Blackhawk MEDEVAC helicopters to its fleet, identifiable by black nose extensions retained from Army service where they were used for mounting sensors, though in Air Wing service none have been equipped. [10]
Craft | No. | Type | Use |
---|---|---|---|
AeroVironment RQ-11B Raven | 5 [12] | UAV | Surveillance |
Pilatus PC-6 Porter | 1 [12] | Fixed wing | |
Air Tractor AT-802 | 2 [12] | Fixed wing | Crop dusting |
Cessna 208-8 Caravan | 3 [12] | Fixed wing | |
Beechcraft 1900 | 7 [12] | Fixed wing | |
Bombardier Dash 8 | 8 [12] | Fixed wing | Transport |
McDonnell Douglas MD-530 Little Bird | 4 [12] | Rotary | |
HH-60L Black Hawk | 22 [12] | Rotary | |
Boeing Vertol CH-46E Sea Knight | 23 [12] | Rotary | Transport |
Bell UH-1H II (Huey II) | 118 [12] | Rotary | Transport |
In Iraq and Afghanistan, private contractor DynCorp was contracted to fly State Department aircraft in the "Embassy Air" program, completing more than 32,000 regularly scheduled flights per year. [13] Most of these aircraft carried weapons mounted when flying over unsecured areas of Iraq and Afghanistan. [13]
During the Fall of Kabul in August 2021, Blackhawk and Sea Knight helicopters of the Air Wing operated in conjunction with US Army CH-47 Chinook helicopters to evacuate the US embassy in Kabul as the Taliban seized control of the city. A photo taken of the flight operations showing a CH-47 landing behind an embassy building was compared to a photo of a Marine Sea Knight evacuating the last Americans from the US embassy in Saigon during the Fall of Saigon, while one of Air Wing Sea Knights flying the rescue operations in Kabul was also in fact previously employed during the evacuation of Saigon. [14] Following the evacuation, seven CH-46's were made inoperable and abandoned at the airport. [15]
In 2013, the Air Wing established an air base on the island of Cyprus. The expressed purpose of the facility, which housed five helicopters and approximately 40 State Department and contractor personnel, was to provide flexibility to support evacuations throughout the Middle East in the wake of the 2012 Benghazi attack and the Syrian civil war spillover in Lebanon. The Office of the Inspector General in 2017 determined that the base represented "nearly $71 million dollars in potentially unnecessary expenditures", and that it was established without the approval of the Department’s Aviation Governing Board. OIG wrote that the Department was unable to produce any records from the time the base began operating that “explained the purpose of the base, the anticipated cost of any evacuation services or the likely extent of its usage. Similarly, no documentation could be found addressing potential alternatives to this facility.”
Patrick Kennedy, a State Department official who made the decision to establish the base, defended the decision as a necessary precaution after criticism of the response to the attacks on the embassy in Benghazi, asking a reporter from ABC News "If you buy insurance and never use it, did you make a mistake?" Use of the facility in Cyprus was ultimately discontinued in 2017. [16]
Kabul International Airport, is located about five kilometres (3 mi) from the center of Kabul in Afghanistan. It is owned by the Government of Afghanistan and operated by UAE-based GAAC Holding on behalf of the Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation. It serves as one of the nation's main international airports, capable of housing over one hundred aircraft. It was locally named as Khwaja Rawash Airport. The airport was renamed in 2014 in honor of former President Hamid Karzai. The decision was made by the National Assembly of Afghanistan and the Cabinet of the then President Ashraf Ghani. It was given its current name in 2021 by the Taliban.
The Air Corps is the air component of the Defence Forces of Ireland. Through a fleet of fixed and rotary wing aircraft, it provides military support to the Army and Naval Service, together with non-military air services such as Garda air support, air ambulance, fisheries protection and the Ministerial Air Transport Service. Its headquarters and airfield is Casement Aerodrome located at Baldonnel, County Dublin. Unlike the Irish Army and Irish Naval Service, the Irish Air Corps does not maintain a reserve component and thus consists entirely of active service personnel.
Latvian Air Force is the aviation branch of the National Armed Forces. The first air force (AF) units were established 1992. It has no air combat capability, thus the defense of Latvian air space is maintained by NATO, with rotating detachments of four aircraft to Lithuania at four-monthly intervals.
Operation Frequent Wind was the final phase in the evacuation of American civilians and "at-risk" Vietnamese from Saigon, South Vietnam, before the takeover of the city by the North Vietnamese People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) in the Fall of Saigon. It was carried out on 29–30 April 1975, during the last days of the Vietnam War. More than 7,000 people were evacuated by helicopter from various points in Saigon. The airlift resulted in a number of enduring images.
The Air Force of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, also referred to as the Islamic Emirate Air Force and the Afghan Air Force, is the air force branch of the Afghan Armed Forces.
The 1st Marine Aircraft Wing is an aviation unit of the United States Marine Corps that serves as the Aviation Combat Element of the III Marine Expeditionary Force. The wing is headquartered at Camp Foster on the island of Okinawa, Japan. Activated in 1940, the wing has seen heavy combat operations during World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War.
The Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) is an agency that reports to the Under Secretary for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights within the Department of State. Under the umbrella of its general mission of developing policies and programs to combat international narcotics and crime, INL plays an important role in the training of partner nation security forces.
Airborne Command & Control Squadron 117 (VAW-117) is an airborne early warning (AEW) and command and control (C2) squadron. Nicknamed "The Wallbangers,” it flies the E-2D Hawkeye, the only carrier-capable command and control aircraft. The squadron is based in NAS Point Mugu and deploys as part of Carrier Air Wing 9 (CVW-9) on board USS Abraham Lincoln.
The Embassy of the United States of America in Kabul was the official diplomatic mission of the United States of America to the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. The embassy was housed in a chancery located on Great Massoud Road in the Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood of the Afghan capital, Kabul, and was built at a cost of nearly $800 million. On August 15, 2021, in the face of a Taliban advance on Kabul, embassy staff relocated to makeshift but secure facilities at Hamid Karzai International Airport. Kabul fell and the chancery building officially closed late August 15.
Afghanistan and Indonesia established diplomatic relations in 1954. The relationship is mostly founded on common religious solidarity, as Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim majority country, and Afghanistan is also a Muslim majority country. Indonesia has expressed its commitment to support and assist the rebuilding of Post-Taliban Afghanistan in various sectors, including technical training, infrastructure, women's empowerment, higher education, and diplomat training. Indonesia has an embassy in Kabul, while Afghanistan has an embassy in Jakarta. Both nations are full members of Non-Aligned Movement and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.
Operation Freedom's Sentinel (OFS) was the official name used by the U.S. government for the mission succeeding Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) in continuation of the War in Afghanistan as part of the larger Global War on Terrorism. Operation Freedom's Sentinel is part of the NATO-led Resolute Support Mission, which began on January 1, 2015. OFS had two components: counterterrorism and working with allies as part of Resolute Support.
Sami Dia Said is a retired lieutenant general in the United States Air Force, who last served as the Inspector General of the Air Force. In this capacity, he reports to the Secretary of the Air Force, Chief of Staff of the Air Force, and Chief of Space Operations on matters concerning Department of the Air Force readiness, efficiency and the military discipline of active duty, Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard forces. He also provides inspection policy and oversees the inspection and evaluation system for all Department of the Air Force nuclear and conventional forces; oversees Department of the Air Force counterintelligence operations; investigates fraud, waste and abuse; oversees criminal investigations; and provides oversight of complaints resolution programs. Said is responsible for three field operating agencies: the Air Force Inspection Agency, the Office of Special Investigations, and the Department of Defense Cyber Crime Center.
Saudi Arabia has historically exerted a strong influence on Afghanistan and was one of the major providers of funds to the Afghan mujahideen who were fighting against the Soviets and their allies the DRA. Saudi Arabia was also the second of only three countries to recognize the first Taliban government, extending official recognition on 26 May 1997, one day after Pakistan and shortly before the United Arab Emirates. After the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia was one of the major helpers in the Afghan reconstruction. For example, the main highway project was funded mainly by the United States and Saudi Arabia. The Grand Mosque of Kabul in Afghanistan was also financed by Saudi Arabia.
Operation Allies Refuge was a United States military operation to airlift certain at-risk Afghan civilians, particularly interpreters, U.S. embassy employees, and other prospective Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) applicants from Afghanistan during the final days of the 2001–2021 War in Afghanistan. U.S. personnel also helped NATO and regional allies in their respective evacuation efforts from Hamid Karzai International Airport in the country's capital of Kabul. The operation was concurrent with the larger American military withdrawal from Afghanistan and the multinational evacuation of eligible foreigners and vulnerable Afghans.
Operation Pitting was a British military operation to evacuate British nationals and eligible Afghans from Afghanistan following the 2021 Taliban offensive. The operation consisted of more than 1,000 military personnel, including soldiers from 16 Air Assault Brigade. It ran concurrently with the evacuation efforts of numerous other countries.
On 15 August 2021, Afghanistan's capital city of Kabul was captured by the Taliban after a major insurgent offensive that began in May 2021. It was the final action of the War in Afghanistan, and marked a total victory for the Taliban. This led to the overthrowing of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan under President Ashraf Ghani and the reinstatement of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan under the control of the Taliban.
On 15 August 2021, the city of Kabul, the capital of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, was captured by Taliban forces during the 2021 Taliban offensive, concluding the War in Afghanistan that began in 2001. The fall of Kabul provoked a range of reactions across the globe, including debates on whether to recognize the Taliban as the government of Afghanistan, on the humanitarian situation in the country, on the outcome of the War, and the role of military interventionism in world affairs.
Large-scale evacuations of foreign citizens and some vulnerable Afghan citizens took place amid the withdrawal of US and NATO forces at the end of the 2001–2021 war in Afghanistan. The Taliban took control of Kabul and declared victory on 15 August 2021, and the NATO-backed Islamic Republic of Afghanistan collapsed. With the Taliban controlling the whole city except Hamid Karzai International Airport, hostilities ceased and the Taliban assisted in the evacuation effort by providing security and screening evacuees.
Afghanistan–Italy relations refers to the diplomatic relations between Afghanistan and Italy which were formed in 1919. On June 3, 1921, they signed the agreement for the exchange of permanent Diplomatic mission and the centenary, on 2021, was celebrated with letters exchanged between their Chairs. Both nations are members of the United Nations but the new Afghanistan government is not recognized by them.
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