General Amirjan has a telephone to his ear, a thick wad of paperwork on his desk and a decrepit air force to take care of. He barks orders at officers in charge of squadrons without planes.
"Twenty years ago we were a major regional force ... now we have to keep our jet pilots busy by keeping them in classrooms," Amirjan said.
Before two decades of warfare left the country in ruins, Afghanistan's air force operated a large fleet of Soviet-built MiG-21 and SU-22 jet fighters, Mi8 helicopters, Mi24 helicopter gunships and cargo aircraft.
Now "almost everything is gone," said Amirjan, a two-star general and the air force's deputy commander responsible for operations and personnel. Like many Afghans he uses only one name.
The air force has just 28 aging helicopters and cargo aircraft left -- and 435 pilots to fly them.
While Western nations are helping rebuild Afghanistan's national army, Amirjan says there is little interest in developing the air force, which may one day prove important in ensuring political stability if US forces ever withdraw.
As American air force pilots fly combat missions on an almost daily basis over Afghanistan, dropping precision-guided ordnance against resurgent Taliban rebels, battle-hardened Afghan pilots are mostly stuck on the ground.
"Look at their aircraft and equipment. I wish we could have something like that," said Mohammad Daoud, a flight engineer, as a C-130 Hercules cargo aircraft thundered down Kabul airport's runway.
The Afghan military is so cash-strapped that it has even closed its military academy that trains pilots and flight engineers.
Earlier this month, President Hamid Karzai launched a reform of the Defense Ministry, and countries including the US, Britain and France are supporting the establishment of a national army, which eventually is planned to have 70,000 troops whom it's hoped will supersede the private militias of warlords who still control most of the country.
Yet airmen were skeptical about how that would help them.
"There are no major military aid programs for Afghanistan's air force," Amirjan said, glancing from his office window at the nearby airstrip, where mechanics were busy stripping useful parts from a wrecked helicopter. "If this situation persists ... it will only be worse ... there will be no future."
Amirjan said his short-term goal is to overhaul his existing fleet. Reconditioned aircraft, however obsolete, would provide a certain degree of protection to Afghan skies "when Americans leave," he said. No date has been set for how long US forces will remain in Afghanistan, but an exit date is not expected anytime soon.
Afghanistan's last few flyable jets were destroyed on runways in late 2001, just hours after the US-led bombing campaign that ousted the hardline Taliban militia and their al-Qaeda allies.
Other fighter jets past their service life have been dumped by airstrips across the country, said Amirjan. He said it was unlikely that many Afghan fighter pilots will be taking to the air anytime soon.
"There are no new aircraft ... jet pilots cannot maintain their flying proficiency," he said.
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