25 November 2008
Afghan Army Becoming More Effective Force, U.S. General Says
Additional army and police forces are planned
Washington — The Afghan National Army now leads about 60 percent of the operations it conducts and is proving to be an effective fighting force that is substantially enhancing the security of Afghanistan, a senior U.S. general says.
“This year, we plan to expand the Afghan National Army by another 28,000 and are on track to meet that number,” Major General Robert Cone said at a November 25 briefing.
The army has a force of about 68,000 soldiers with another 11,000 in training. That number will grow to a total of 122,000 with another 12,000 in training in 2009. In 2007, the Afghan army expanded by approximately 26,000 soldiers.
Cone, who commands the unit that trains, equips and advises the Afghan National Army and national police, said the security force is expanding rapidly while simultaneously fighting a counterinsurgency war. Cone, in a videoconference from Afghanistan, discussed progress in training security forces.
“We’re fielding up-armored Humvees [High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles] and NATO weapons to replace light tactical vehicles and Warsaw Pact weapons” that were left over from the former Soviet army in Afghanistan, Cone said.
Cone’s command, the Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan (CSTC-A), works with countries participating in NATO’s International Security Assistance Force in training and equipping the Afghan security forces. Assistance in this mission comes from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and Spain.
While the command has worked closely with the Afghan army for about five years, Cone said it began working with the national police only a year ago.
“Since then, CSTC-A and the Ministry of Interior have retrained over 22,000 police. That’s more than a quarter of the police force in just one year,” Cone said.
The central thrust of the police training program, Cone said, is the Focused District Development Program, which has resulted in substantial progress where the police interact directly with the Afghan population.
“To date, we have reformed 42 districts. This is a program that has proven that it works,” Cone said.
And, Cone said, a program to retrain and reform the Afghan border police has also been initiated. The program is modeled after the highly successful police district program. “Over the winter, we will train 52 companies at a cost of some $70 million,” Cone said. “These companies will partner with coalition units.”
The command is building approximately 165 permanent border facilities on the borders of Afghanistan at a cost of about $845 million, he said.
“We have made great progress in training, fielding and equipping the Afghan national security forces, but we have a long way to go. This effort requires sustained support from the international community,” Cone said.
