Wings over the Hindu Kush

This is the story of nine diverse air forces, their aircraft, and air warfare over Afghanistan in the period between the Soviet withdrawal of 1989, and the US-led Western intervention in 2001.

Afghanistan is widely considered one of the World's most primitive and hostile environments. The terrain is rugged and the climate harsh; in many parts of the country the local society developed over millennia in total isolation from the outside world; other areas experienced invasions by Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, the British Empire, and felt strong influence from Czarist Russia and then the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

Since 1978, the country has been savaged by an uninterrupted war fought by a host of diverse parties.