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Behind the politics, Afghan army has a mountain to climb

by Babel-Fish | December 3, 2009 at 05:13 pm

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The problem is NATO could also be training an enemy as well, the rate of trained recruits that go AWOL is what would interest me? I wonder how well recruits are screened prior to being allowed to join their military?

However they do need to be trained and as fast as possible it normally takes about 14 weeks or so for initial training then maybe a further 3 - 6 months within a serving unit. I expect that will be the time line. However then soldiers worthy of a rank need further training for each rank 2 months or so to qualify.

Lying flat on the cold, hard gravel, Nourikhtab's face is a picture of grim concentration as he gently squeezes off one M16 rifle round after another. Above the firing range, the steep cliffs of Gharib Ghar mountain echo to the sound of his shots.

In the distance, beyond the rolling plains and hills of the Kabul Military Training Centre (KMTC) on the road to Jalalabad, rise the snow-dusted tops of the Hindu Kush. Nearby, hundreds of ruined Soviet tanks and armoured cars, piled in rusting heaps, offer a reminder that war is never far away in this beautiful, unforgiving land.

Nourikhtab, 22, an Afghan national army recruit, is keen to get involved in Afghanistan's latest conflict ‑ the war against the Taliban. As his instructor compliments him on his shooting ‑ the paper target reveals a neat cluster of holes just to the left of the bullseye ‑ he says he's ready to fight. "I will kill the bad guys. Yes, I will. I will shoot them." He looks as though he means it.

First Lieutenant Taj Mahad, also 22, a trainee officer from Panjshir, sounds equally determined. Those in the west who question whether the nascent Afghan security forces, army and police, will one day be able to defend their homeland unaided are wrong, he says.

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Karl Gotthardt - albertacowpoke

at 17:40 on December 3rd, 2009

That timeline is about right for a Western Army. In Canada we took 8 weeks for basic training, which is training with basic rifle knowledge only. Infantry training took about 17 weeks, which trains the soldier to function within a platoon. Units would then take on the task to train soldiers as drivers, communicators, machine gunners for heavier machine guns. In this case it would be how to operate 25mm MG in a LAV (Light Assault Vehicle). All that specialized training takes time.

The training of the Afghan army I would think would be pretty basic. If I recall soldiers trained for Vietnam took about 8 weeks worth of training.

What no one has talked about yet is how the Afghan Army will be equipped and who will fund it. Surely they don.t expect them to secure the country in pick up trucks. That would make them canon fodder for IEDs.

I agree training will take a while but I doubt very much that they would spend 8 months on it. Some may have to move on and get some training on any specialized equipment the ANA may receive. It all seems pretty blurry to me.

Babel-Fish

at 18:40 on December 3rd, 2009

I have amended the 8 months basic training to 14 weeks, my memory is getting very bad its only 3+ months, it seemed a very long time to me 44 years ago it was to do with the aches and pain and being shouted at for 18 hours a day I expect, lol

3 months or so in the unit, then life got much easier, until one bumped into the Regimental Sargent Major and getting a real telling off for saluting him and then not doing it probably. He became a very good friend later in life and often gave me free drinks in his small public house in Winchester. I bugged him later that first year by smoking a pipe, of which was allowed and he invented a marching drill especially whilst smoking a pipe (the CO smoked one too). Then walked away with a smug smile on his face. lol