[11] It served as the air component of the NATO Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan which was responsible for organising the Afghan Armed Forces.

From the late 1930s until World War II, British Hawker Hind and Italian IMAM Ro.37 aircraft constituted the bulk of the Afghan Air Force, which by 1938 amounted to about 30 planes in service.

[21][22] By 1960, the Royal Afghan Air Force consisted of approximately 100 combat aircraft including MiG-15 fighters, Il-28 light bombers, transports, and a few helicopters.

[25] Another estimate in 1988 painted a more detailed picture of the Afghan Air Force:[29] The Mil Mi-24 and Mi-35 (export model) attack helicopters have a long history in Afghanistan.

In the first use of the Stinger in Afghanistan, mujahideen fighters downed three of eight unsuspecting Soviet Mi-24 Hinds as they approached the airfield at Jalalabad on a late September afternoon.

Moreover, for most of the remainder of the war when Stingers were known to be present, Soviet and Afghan aircraft elected to remain at higher altitudes where they were less vulnerable to the missile, but also less effective in ground attacks.

Although employed extensively throughout the war as a ground attack platform, the Hind suffered from a weak tail boom and was found to be underpowered for some missions it was called upon to perform in the mountains of Afghanistan, where high density altitude is especially problematic for rotary-wing aircraft.

[34] The Afghan Northern Alliance/United Front operated a small number of helicopters and transports and a few other aircraft for which it depended on assistance from neighboring Tajikistan.

[8] With its founding in 1994 the Taliban invited former Communist Pilots to join their ranks which many Khalqists and Pashtun Parchamites willingly accepted due to ethnic solidarity or a despise for the Mujahedeen warlords who had not brought peace to the nation.

The sanctions, along with the Taliban government's control of Ariana Afghan Airlines and the grounding of many of the carrier's international flights, had a devastating effect on the economic health of the company through the 1990s.

According to the Los Angeles Times: With the Taliban's blessing, Bin Laden effectively had hijacked Ariana, the national civilian airline of Afghanistan.

For four years, according to former U.S. aides and exiled Afghan officials, Ariana's passenger and charter flights ferried Islamic militants, arms, cash and opium through the United Arab Emirates and Pakistan.

[37] Marion writes:[38] In 2005, the Americans took the first tentative steps to reestablishing an Afghan presidential airlift capability in keeping with a directive from U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

Later that year, a small team led by Colonel John Hansen, U.S. Army, began working with Afghan airmen at Kabul International Airport.

In January 2008, President Hamid Karzai said that his country's Air Force had been reborn after inaugurating its new headquarters at Kabul International Airport freshly equipped with new aircraft.

[48] Satellite pictures analysis of 16 August indicated that the Termez Airport held multiple AAF aircraft: including various Mi-17, Mi-25 and UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters, as well some A-29s and C-208s airplanes.

[56] On 6 February 2022, Taliban's Ministry of Defence spokesperson Enayatullah Khwarizmi announced that around five Afghan pilots have returned to the country and resumed their work.

On 22 March 2018, the Afghan Air Force dropped a GBU-58 Paveway II laser-guided bomb from a Super Tucano in combat, for the first time.

However, the prime contractor in the refurbishment and supply of the planes, Alenia Aermacchi North America, a unit of Italian defense conglomerate Finmeccanica S.p.A., was unable to provide adequate maintenance support for the aircraft.

The U.S. declaration that the C-27A was now an Afghan Air Force asset effectively violated international law and the Italian government enforced the embargo and stopped shipment of contracted supplies to Afghanistan.

Since the C-27A aircraft purchased still had Italian military air worthiness certificates controlled by the company, Alenia North America effectively monopolized the entire supply chain making fair competition non-existent.

It was announced that the contractor had failed to meet their legal obligations, and that the Afghan Air Force would receive four Lockheed C-130 Hercules transport aircraft, expected in 2013.

The US Department of Defense (DoD) requested $814.5M for 2017, the first year of the plan, to re-equip the Afghan Air Force and to provide funding to procure 53 UH-60s, with refurbishment and modification of the first 18.

[91] In 2019, the DoD reported that it did not provide any funding or advisory support for the Mi-35s and that the Mi-35 had been "removed from the authorized fleet in 2015 but the Afghans continue to attempt to sustain them".

[103] With the delivery of 20 advanced fixed-wing light support aircraft, a plan was made for the A-29 Super Tucano Afghan pilots to undergo further training.

[105] Prior to the hostilities, in July 2021 the Afghan Air Force had 131 usable or in-country aircraft including 23 A-29 Super Tucano’s, 3 C-130’s, 23 Cessna 208’s, 10 AC-208's, 12 Mil Mi-17’s, 28 UH-60 Blackhawk’s, and 42 MD 530 helicopters.

One Afghan Embraer EMB 314 Super Tucano crashed after crossing the border, Uzbek authorities issued conflicting reports on the cause.

[116] Six helicopters, including three UH-60A+ Black Hawks and three Mi-17s,[117] were undergoing maintenance outside of Afghanistan when the country fell and it's unknown whether these Mi-17s were part of the airlifts that brought the additional four Mi-17s to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base over the past few weeks.

The Royal Afghan Air Force retained the roundels until adopting a new style in 1967, with a unique insignia consisting of a tri-color triangle using the national colors upon a white disc, on which was inscribed with Arabic lettering forming various phrases.

This remained in use after the overthrow of the monarchy until the Saur Revolution in 1978, when a new insignia of a red disc with yellow inscriptions with the Pashto word Khalq was adopted.