Photo By Sarah Loicano | NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan Commanding General Lt. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV...... read more read more
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KABUL, Afghanistan – Top NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan officials met with NATO parliamentary representatives here, Oct. 24, to highlight the significant progress that has been made this past year and the importance of additional trainers to meet increased mission requirements.
Seven representatives from various nations sat in on an open forum led by NTM-A Commanding General, Lt. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV, and discussed the progress and challenges of building and developing the Afghan National Security Force. The First Deputy Minister of Defense for Afghanistan, Enayatullah Nazari also attended and emphasized the importance of the training mission and international trainers.
“This event was really important,” said U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Gary Patton, Deputy Commanding General-Army. “The NATO representatives were able to hear two key messages from Minister Nazari - the need for more trainers and fighting corruption in the [Afghan National Security Force]. This was the perfect venue for the representatives to hear and understand our needs.”
As NTM-A works with the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to increase the ANSF to 171,600 personnel -- an increase of more than 30,000 by November 2011, hundreds of more trainers are needed to ensure target goals are met, according to Caldwell. In the past year alone the number of trainers has tripled due to the contributions of the international community and NATO partners.
According to Caldwell, the real shortfall is the lack of specialty trainers.
“We don’t need hundreds of trainers,” the general said. “What we need are specialty trainers. If a nation says they can provide eight [specialty] trainers it is a big improvement because each trainer has such an enormous impact.”
The U.S. Armed Forces have spent approximately $1 billion per month using the Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan fiscal budget – the primary funding in NTM-A provided by the United States – equipping, manning and training the ANSF since NTM-A’s inception Nov. 21, 2009. The fiscal budget for 2011 is $12.8 billion – an increase of $1 billion.
The United States has dedicated more money to the mission, but the increase will not cover the demand for additional trainers, said Caldwell.
“Our requirements continue to grow,” he said. “Many people think we’ll be drawing down forces next July. That may be true for the war-fighting mission, but not the training mission. If anything we need more trainers.”
NTM-A officials are attributing the substantial improvements in the training mission to the increase in trainers.
“The increase in trainers we’ve received has had a very positive impact on the quality of training the ANSF has received,” said Patton.
As an example, before NTM-A was established there was one trainer to every 300 basic warrior training students, which only allowed for a point-and-shoot training method in marksmanship training. Since then, the trainer-to-trainee ratio has dramatically improved to one trainer to every 29 basic warrior training soldiers, which has boosted marksmanship to 97 percent.
Coalition forces are also working with the Afghans to develop specialized training schools or branch schools. Patton stated that ten of 12 branch schools in the Afghan National Army have been opened so far and the remaining two will be opened within the next couple of months.
The training mission over the course of the past year has experienced marked success, but in order to sustain momentum, it will require the continued support of NATO partners.
“The briefing we received has shown us things have changed very much since the beginning of NTM-A,” said Canadian Senator Joseph Day, a NATO representative. “We will be able to take this information back with us to show them [our countries] how much progress is being made in Afghanistan. These briefings will be reflected in our reports and that will allow us to explain how important it is to provide more trainers.”
| Date Taken: | 10.24.2010 |
| Date Posted: | 10.26.2010 02:44 |
| Story ID: | 58806 |
| Location: | KABUL, AF |
| Web Views: | 140 |
| Downloads: | 4 |
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