Afghan Combined Arms Training Course Conducted for First Time - Improving CAI

The Afghan War started in the Fall of 2001 when a small group of CIA agents and several Special Forces teams assisted the Northern Alliance and some Pashtun resistance groups in overthrowing the Taliban regime. It is now 2014 - more than 13 years later - and we are now making great strides in the professionalization of the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF). For the first time (again, 13 years later) ISAF has assisted the Consolidated Fielding Centre (CFC) in the conduct of "the first ever Combined Arms Training course". The course was organized by mentors from NTM-A in partnership with the ANA Training and Education Command (ANATEC). In the shift from combat-oriented, unit-based advising to functionally-based Security Force Assistance (fbSFA) the advisors conducting Security Force Assistance are concentrating on five functional areas - Leadership, Command and Control, Combined Arms Integration, Training, and Sustainment. The Combined Arms Training course is an attempt to provide more professionalism in the Combined Arms Integration of the five functional pillars for ANSF development and sustainment. Read more in "ISAF and the ANSF focus on capability integration", DVIDS, February 8, 2014.