Obama's Pak-Afghan strategy
The US Army general in charge of training and equipping the Afghan National Army (ANA) and Afghan National Police (ANP) has described the unveiling of President Barak Obama's new Afpak strategy in March as a potential "tipping point" in US and Nato efforts in Afghanistan.
Major General Richard Formica, the commander of the Combined Security Transition Command Afghanistan (CSTC-A), said at CSTC-A's Kabul headquarters that the additional resources outlined by Obama promised to end the chronic under-resourcing of both civil and military projects.
"In Iraq in 2004, if we needed something, we got it," said Gen Formica. "Up until this point in Afghanistan we figured out how to get along without it. That's changing." He said that Obama's strategic review "validated the current programme we're on" and that the decision to send 4,000 US trainers as well as frontline troops was "a demonstrable and sustainable commitment to the development of the Afghan security forces."
Those security forces would eventually need to number "roughly double" the combined 216,000 soldiers and police currently mandated , Gen Formica added; he therefore welcomed the "room for growth" he thought the White House review allowed.
The development of the ANA was "on track," he said, with 15,700 officers and NCOs currently in training and the Kabul Military Training Centre (KMTC), the ANA's main training facility, graduating between 1,100 and 1,200 new soldiers every fortnight from the ten-week Basic Warrior Training course.
Among a range of moves outlined by CSTC-A officials aimed at improving ANA training is a USD90 million programme to upgrade the facilities at KMTC, the forthcoming establishment of a new combat service support school at the centre and the inauguration of a sergeant major programme to complement KMTC's already extensive NCO programme. Adding to the existing ANA facilities in Kabul, Heart and Mazar-e Sharif, Basic Warrior Training being offered in the eastern province of Khowst to improve accessibility.
Gen Formica accepted that the ANP was "further behind" and that there had been "no programme growth until recently." He said that CSTC-A's priority was now to "sustain momentum on the army while adding focus to the police." A new pay structure ensuring parity between the ANA and the ANP the basic salary for both services is now USD 120 per month and the introduction of a merit-based promotion system and of drug-testing for all police officers are among the measures that CSTC-A is employing to raise standards.
Jane's Defence Weekly
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