[2][3] 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.

[6] Two estimates, one from Mark Urban and one from the CIA, paint a more detailed picture of the Afghan Air Force:[7][1] The Mil Mi-24 and Mi-35 (export model) attack helicopters have a long history in Afghanistan.

Early in the war, the only anti-air weapons of the mujahideen were Soviet-made, shoulder-launched, heat-seeking SAMs and American Redeye, which had either been captured from the Soviets or their Afghan allies or were supplied by Western sources.

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.

[12] 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.

[20] During its first incarnation, Afghan aircraft carried simple black and white depictions of the Arms of Afghanistan, with the inscription 'God is great' on the underside of the wings.