Air Mentors to Return Home
Szöveg: honvedelem.hu | 2013. április 22. 9:24The Ministry of Defence has decided on the time and conditions for the homecoming of the Hungarian air mentor contingent from Afghanistan. Preparations are under way for the permanent return home, which would be completed by the first half of May under the Ministry’s decision.
The Hungarian Defence Forces contribute two air mentor teams to the NATO-led ISAF
operations in Afghanistan. They are responsible for providing the attack helicopter crews of
the Afghan Air Force (AAF) with classroom instruction and hands-on training, and also for
participating in the maintenance of the helicopters of the Afghan National Army (ANA) and
mentoring the ground crews.
The personnel of both teams are drawn from the HDF 86th Szolnok Helicopter Base in four-
month rotations. The Hungarian Defence Forces Mi–35 Air Mentor Team has been serving at
the Kabul International Airport (KAIA) since April 2010. The mandate of this contingent runs
until May 2013, when the ninth rotation of the team will end its mission and these soldiers too
will permanently return from Afghanistan.
The return home of the other Hungarian air mentor team by the end of 2013 will mark the
end of the training the Hungarians are providing to helicopter crews in the region. The Mi–
17 Air Advisory Team (AAT) has been deployed on Shindand Air Base, Herat Province since
August 2011. In principle, this team is supposed to serve in Afghanistan until the end of
December 2013.
As it is known, currently more than 100,000 troops from 50 countries are serving with the
NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). Several hundred soldiers of the
Hungarian Defence Forces are deployed with eight contingents in Afghanistan. One of these,
the Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) has already completed its mission and its service
members have returned to Hungary.
(Source: Magyar Nemzet)
Photo: archive
