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.