Afghan airmen have received training for the first time on how they would use signaling equipment to alert help if their aircraft go down. This is part of the broader survival skills that NATO Air Training Command-Afghanistan advisors are teaching them. As part of the training, which took place Nov. 3 at the Blackwater Training Range in Kabul, the Afghans shot several different types of signaling flares and learned how to use mirrors and other items to show their locations to rescue aircraft. “Some of these guys have been being advised for four to five years, but they only within the past seven months have gotten equipment,” said MSgt. Jeremy Raymond, an NATC-A/438th Air Expeditionary Advisory Group advisor. (Kabul report by MC3 Jared E. Walker)
Amid NATO’s continued push to ramp up air defenses in Eastern Europe, Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall swung by seven allied countries to boost relations last week, including those on Russia’s and Ukraine’s doorstep.