Maj. Caleb Nimmo, an Air Force advisor to the Afghan National Army Air Corps, has become the first US pilot to fly a Russian-built Mi-35 attack helicopter in combat, according to a NATO Training Mission Afghanistan release May 16. Details of this mission were not provided. Nimmo is assigned to the 438th Air Expeditionary Wing Combined Air Power Transition Force in Kabul where he supporters the ANAAC’s 377th Rotary Wing Squadron, along with advisors from the Czech Republic and Hungary. “The Afghans are very skilled pilots and they teach me things all the time,” said Nimmo, who has experience flying UH-1 Huey helicopters, T-6 trainers, and MV-22 Osprey tiltrotor airplanes. The Air Force now uses the Mi-35, dubbed the Hind, as an aggressor aircraft in Red Flag exercises at Nellis, AFB, Nev.
President Donald Trump’s nominee for Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff touted his highly unusual background for the job as an asset and reaffirmed his commitment to stay apolitical during a confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee on April 1.