"The drop resulted in a direct hit along the route of a major Afghan National Army clearing operation," according to a March 27 statement from NATO's Resolute Support Headquarters.
The A-29 pilot deployed the laser-guided bomb "because of the target's close proximity to civilians," the NATO statement noted.
US Air Force Brigadier General Lance Bunch, director of future operations, told reporters in December that the US and NATO was looking to grow the Afghan Air Force three times larger than its current size by 2023.
The AAF "is conducting significantly more air operations in direct support of the ANDSF [Afghan National Defense and Security Forces] on the battlefield, to the tune of 599 more sorties this year than they did the year before."
Earlier this year, Afghan attack pilots completed live-fire training for deploying Paveway GBU-58 laser-guided bombs.
