The Afghan National Army Air Corps in February took another important step towards fielding a professional, self-sufficient force when its first class of doctors—six in all—graduated from their nine-month flight surgeon course that was taught by medical advisors of the Combined Air Power Transition Force. Their graduation ceremony took place Feb. 16 in Kabul. These newly winged Afghan flight surgeons give the Afghan military, for the first time, doctors with the knowledge to treat medical issues associated with the rigors of aviation. They now form the nucleus of future ANAAC aerospace medicine cadre. The CAPTF is tasked with helping the fledgling Afghan air arm grow into a capable fighting force. Its flight surgeon training course for the Afghans is modeled on the aerospace medicine primary course that USAF doctors must attend to become flight surgeons. (NTM-A release)
While U.S. defense officials have spent much of the past decade warning that China is the nation’s pacing threat and its People’s Liberation Army represents an urgent threat in the Indo-Pacific, several defense researchers are skeptical that the PLA has the human capital, the structural ability, or the political appetite…