738th Air Expeditionary Advisory Group emblem[1][a]
Military unit
Mission
The group's mission is to train the Afghan Air Force able to meet the security requirements of Afghanistan. As part of the 438th Air Expeditionary Wing, the 738th advises the Kandahar Air Wing, which operates in the southern regions of Afghanistan. The group also assists the Kandahar Air Wing in counterinsurgency operations. Group advisers mentor their Afghan counterparts in flight operations, aircraft maintenance, intelligence, logistics, personnel management, communications and base defense.[1]
Units (Inactivated)
441st Air Expeditionary Advisory Squadron
The 441st Squadron was the operational training squadron of the 738th Air Expeditionary Advisory Group. The squadron trains members of the Afghanistan Air Force's Kandahar Air Wing on the wing's Mil Mi-17 helicopters and Cessna 208 Caravan aircraft.[2]
442d Air Expeditionary Advisory Squadron
The 442d squadron had about 140 members, of whom about 100 are maintenance contractors from Ukraine, working for Lockheed Martin. The contractors perform maintenance and formal instruction, while the 40 military members advise senior leadership in the Kandahar Wing's maintenance group on logistics management. It focuses on developing instructors within the Afghan Air Force to enable them to take over the training mission.[2]
443d Air Expeditionary Advisory Squadron
The 443d Squadron provided mission support for the group and its assigned squadrons.[1]
History
The 738th was activated on 29 November 2009 to include the NATO advisory support that had been established at Kandahar in the spring of 2008. It included airmen from the United States, Lithuania, Latvia, Ukraine, and Belgium. It is made up of three Air Expeditionary Advisory Squadrons operating out of Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan.[1]
Lineage
Constituted as the 738th Air Expeditionary Advisory Group in provisional status on 23 November 2009[3]
^The formation of aircraft with contrails signifies the unit's mission to work together with counterparts to become self-sufficient and embody the spirit of working shoulder-to-shoulder. The grouping of pyramids represents the aspects of the unit's mission to train, equip and advise their counterparts. The land and the sky together represent the goal of the unit's mission to create a self-sufficient AAF on the land and in the sky. 738th AEAG Fact Sheet.
