Shindand Air Base  Shindand Air Base is located in the western part of Afghanistan in the Shindand District of Herat Province, 7 miles northeast of the city of Shindand. The runway has a concrete surface. An all weather asphalt road connects it with the Kandahar–Herat Highway, part of Highway 1 (the national ring road). The base is of great strategic importance being just 75 miles from the border of Iran. It is capable of housing over one hundred military aircraft. It is one of the largest Afghan Air Force bases. For several years, the U.S. Air Force's 838th Air Expeditionary Advisory Group operated at the base supporting the NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan. The base may also have been used in the past by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for surveillance missions over western Afghanistan that have included use of the RQ-170 drone. "Construction of a perimeter fence at Shindand Air Base tripled the size of the base and included 52 guard towers. Force protection was a major component of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) military construction program in Afghanistan." Shindand also hosts the 3rd Wing of the Afghan Air Force (AAF). The Soviet military began building an airfield near the village of Shindand in 1961 and made heavy use of the base during the 1980s Soviet–Afghan War. Control of the base was taken over from President Mohammad Najibullah by forces of the Islamic State of Afghanistan. They were forced to abandon the base in 1997 after the Taliban took over the country, and the runway sustained massive damage during bombing when coalition forces initially entered Afghanistan in 2002. It was then taken by the 3rd Brigade, Central Corps, Afghan National Army, with advisors from the U.S. Army, in August 2004 when the country was under the Karzai administration. Elements of the 3/4 CAV of the 25th Infantry Division arrived two weeks later to reinforce this force. In 2010, the runway of the base was refurbished so that it is able to support all military aircraft, including the C-17 Globemaster III. Airmen from the 809th Expeditionary Red Horse Squadron constructed facilities to bed down the MQ-1B Predator unmanned aircraft system for the 451st Air Expeditionary Wing. The RED HORSE personnel built two separate sets of parking aprons, aircraft shelters, and maintenance facilities at this location and installed all of the needed utilities. The unit also created helicopter parking in 2010.