POTD: Afghan Air Force Door Gunner over Kabul

by Eric B

Published: April 24th, 2019

potd afghan air force door gunner over kabul

Today’s Photo is an Afghan Air Force (AAF) Aerial Door Gunner over Kabul, Afghanistan.

He’s riding in a Mi-17 helicopter over Logar, just outside Kabul.

Of all the aerial door gunners we’ve covered over the years, this is probably the lowest-tech by far. Just compare it to the German Bundeswehr and their FN M3M (GAU-21).

Note that the machine gun only has open sights, but at least they put a Picatinny rail on it.

These open sights aren’t really suitable for door gunning either, it looks like you have to “aim by shooting”. It reminds me of the movie Full Metal Jacket:

Looks like they’re using an FN MAG / M240 machine gun in 7,62×51 mm, possibly the Model 60-30 – Aircraft Mounting Model.

Below: Note the emblem of the Afghan Air Force on the gunner’s left arm.

All pictures by the Norwegian Defense and Torbjørn Kjosvold.

#FNMAG #AerialDoorGunner #AfghanAirForce #Mi-17

Eric B

Ex-Arctic Ranger. Competitive practical shooter and hunter with a European focus. Always ready to increase my collection of modern semi-automatics, optics, thermals and suppressors. TCCC Certified. Occasionaly seen in a 6x6 Bug Out Vehicle, always with a big smile.

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8 of 27 comments

Kaban on Apr 25, 2019

Nothing wrong with having sighting system, but 3-to-1 (or whatever) load of ball and tracers is still what actually brings aerial gunner on target.

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Biff on Apr 25, 2019

I’m not sure what would be more hazardous to your health, being shot at by the door gunner or riding in a Mi-17 being flown by Afghan pilots and maintained by Afghan mechanics.

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- See 5 previous
- Uncle Yar on Apr 26, 2019
  
  @Biff It's an Mi 17. It'll be fine
  
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- Int19h on Apr 26, 2019
  
  @Uncle Yar You say so, but my stepdad (Soviet army major who served in Afghanistan back in the day) had some horror stories about the DRA military personnel they had to interact with, involving AK maintenance. Tsarandoy (? not sure about the spelling, transliterating from Russian - local cops, basically, they were used to man checkpoints) was even worse.
  
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- Uncle Yar on Apr 26, 2019
  
  @int19h Surely they can't be more dysfunctional than a stoned monkey flinging crap... Then again there's probably a good reason hidden somewhere in these anecdote that explains why the median age in Afghanistan is like 19
  
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- Int19h on Apr 26, 2019
  
  @Uncle Yar Think along the lines of, "why do I need to clean it? bullets still fly out!"
  
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- Uncle Yar on Apr 26, 2019
  
  @int19h Until it doesn't. Then you spend the rest of your life trying to make the bullet fly out once again
  
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- Int19h on Apr 26, 2019
  
  @Uncle Yar When it doesn't, then either your iman sucks, or is so great that you're rewarded by becoming shaheed insha'Allah. 🤣
  
  Like

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POTD: Afghan Air Force Door Gunner over Kabul

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