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AAF launches operational capability standards, readiness reporting

  • Published
  • By Capt. Anastasia Burgess and Tech. Sgt. Joseph Prouse
  • 438th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
KABUL, AFGHANISTAN --  In a ceremony held Feb. 26 at the NATO Air Training Command-Afghanistan headquarters, Maj. Gen. Abdul Wahab Wardak, commander of the Afghan Air Force, along with Brig. Gen. Steve Shepro, NATC-A commander, came together for a historic signing ceremony for two documents, the Designated Operational Capability Statement and Unit Mission Decree.

These decrees will provide AAF and NATC-A unit commanders their specific mission requirements, allocated resources to accomplish these missions, and training plan guidance to achieve and evaluate unit readiness.

Wahab and Shepro congratulated the staff and wing leadership via video teleconference on this important milestone in the AAF/NATC-A Combined Strategic Flight Plan. "Our units now have an important standard of combat readiness to fly, fight and win," Shepro explained before signing.

The signing was the culmination of nine months of joint collaboration between the AAF and NATC-A after the need for doctrine and regulations was identified in early 2012. Col. Reginald Smith, NATC-A director of operations, was instrumental in the process.

"Today the Afghan Air Force took a historic step to issue unit mission decrees to all subordinate operations unit commanders," remarked Smith. "These decrees articulate mission sets and capabilities. In addition, the mission decrees provide a baseline document against which commanders can base their training plans and evaluate their progress toward full mission capability."

During the development of the DOCS, the AAF additionally created a Unit Mission Decree that was both culturally compatible and doctrinally correct in order to ensure that the AAF commander is able to pass his expectations for all AAF operational units.