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2 YORKS - Mentoring the ANA in Helmand



www.mod.uk    Department of defence UK
2010-02-08

Since they arrived in Afghanistan four months ago, 2nd Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment (Green Howards) [2 YORKS] have been undertaking a critical task in the long term strategy for British involvement in Afghanistan - mentoring soldiers from the Afghan National Army. Report by Tristan Kelly.


A member of a 2 YORKS Operational Mentoring and Liaison Team helps to train an Afghan National Army soldier at Camp Shorabak in Helmand province
[Picture: Crown Copyright/MOD 2009]

The central feature in last year`s report on the future strategy in Afghanistan by General Stanley McChrystal, Commander of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), was the need for coalition nations to build up the indigenous Afghan security forces in order for them to take more responsibility for tackling the insurgency in the country.

2nd Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment are at the forefront of that strategy as they provide the personnel who make up the Operational Mentoring and Liaison Team (OMLT) Battle Group in Helmand.

Based at Camp Tombstone, next to Camp Bastion in Helmand province, the OMLT Battle Group`s role is to train the Afghan National Army (ANA) in the skills it needs to successfully function on its own and therefore take over security in Helmand province from ISAF troops.

In Helmand, the various OMLTs of the 2 YORKS Battle Group, which are spread around the province, are responsible for mentoring and liaising with the 3rd Brigade of 205 Corps of the ANA, headquartered at Camp Shorabak and led by General Mohaiyodin.

From the very top to the bottom of the battle group, officers and soldiers are working side-by-side with their Afghan counterparts to offer advice, training and knowledge.

It is a critical responsibility, and one in which 2 YORKS have had some experience, as their Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Colonel David Colthup, explained:

"We were last here in 2007/08. It is the first time a unit has come back to take on the same role as mentors in Afghanistan.

"We are the eighth unit to have been given the mentoring task in Helmand and I am General Mohaiyodin`s eighth mentor, but the first to come back and do it again.

"About 50 per cent of those that are here now, on the 2 YORKS side, were here last time."

Each OMLT is composed of 30-60 personnel depending on the type and function of the Afghan National Army unit with which it is partnered, and each OMLT is normally deployed with an Afghan unit for a minimum period of six months.

The 2 YORKS Battle Group consists of six OMLTs: four infantry, one combat support (reconnaissance, engineering and artillery), and one for combat service support (logistics).

The infantry element is deployed right across the area of Helmand in which UK forces operate. The 2 YORKS soldiers live, sleep, eat, patrol and fight alongside the soldiers of the ANA on a daily basis.


It is a substantial task, as Lt Col Colthup explained:

"We cover just about every functional area of the ANA in terms of mentors.

"I have four mentoring teams that are deployed in the Task Force Helmand area on the infantry side, one operating with each of the principle Kandaks [ANA battalions] that are deployed in Task Force Helmand`s area; one in Musa Qal`ah, one in Sangin, one in Babaji and one in Nad `Ali.

"In addition to that we have a combat support mentoring team that looks after engineering, artillery and recce on behalf of the ANA, and we also have a combat service support OMLT that looks after transport, equipment support, medical and communications.

"There is another Kandak that is also operating in our area of operations, which is the Highway Kandak, and we have a limited amount of mentoring responsibility for that as well.

"And the final element are the mentors who mentor the brigade headquarters itself, so from myself mentoring the Brigade Commander, General Mohaiyodin, through all the functional areas from chief of staff, across the functions from S1 down to S8 - so logistics, operations and everything in between."

As Major Bruce Radbourne, the head training mentor for 3rd Brigade of the ANA, explains, the key aim is to help create a professional army - but by `training the trainers` rather than supplying all the tuition themselves.

Major Radbourne, of the Parachute Regiment and attached to 2 YORKS, said:

"The main thing we are trying to achieve with the Afghans is the same as you would with any army - get them to concentrate on basic individual training, collective training and specialist training.

"Although the most important thing for me here as a mentor is to get the Afghans to do it, for them to deliver the instruction and not me and my staff.

"What my staff do is mentor them and point them in the right direction."


It is planned that by October 2010 the Afghan National Army will be 134,000-strong, and the Afghans are committed to the recruitment of 5,000 soldiers a month from this spring.

Such an influx of new troops means that 2 YORKS have to cater for both new troops fresh from the Kabul Military Training Centre (KMTC) as well as more seasoned soldiers who are stationed out in the Forward Operating and Patrol Bases (FOBs and PBs).

Maorj Radbourne explained the varying training needs:

"We have two facets of training. The first facet is what we are running over the next six weeks which is an RSOI [Reception Staging and Onward Integration] package of brand new soldiers that have come in from the KMTC.

"The soldiers will be at quite a low standard of training because they will only have done eight weeks of training or at best a further five weeks - so 13 in all.

"The other side of training I`ll deliver will be to soldiers who are already in the brigade and in the Kandaks on the ground around Helmand. And there, training could be delivered to a soldier who has been in the Army for anything up to three years or so, so who has got quite a bit of experience."

The training for more experienced ANA soldiers, or `Warriors` as they are known, is delivered under the lead of people such as Lieutenant Ian Atkins, a Platoon Commander for OMLT 1 based at PB Waterloo in Sangin:

"It`s the first time I have worked as a mentor and it is actually quite rewarding," Lt Atkins said.

"I had heard a lot about the ANA before I came, both good and bad, but I was quite pleasantly surprised when I got to work with them.

"They are actually quite a good bunch of lads, quite responsive. They do things in a different way, I wouldn`t say it is a worse way, it is just their method of doing things.

"My main effort really is working on the understanding that solving the problem, and especially in Sangin, is not just about going out and fighting the enemy - which is what the ANA love to do and it`s what they are very good at.

"It is more about getting the ANA to see the importance of working with the local nationals. Getting their support and getting them onside."

Both Lt Atkins and Lt Col Colthup point to the many improvements in the ANA since 2 YORKS first took on the mentoring role in Helmand in 2007.

With this in mind, Lt Col Colthup hopes to take the mentoring a step further on the current tour and include the ANA more when jointly planning and executing operations.


Lt Col Colthup said:

"For us this time around the key area we want to concentrate on, on top of just progressing the part of getting the ANA more efficient and better developed, is to play an active role in joint planning, joint execution of operations, all part of General McChrystal`s directive on embedded partnering.

"I think we can see some real advantages and benefits coming from an inclusive working relationship in terms of joint planning and execution of operations on a joint basis."

Such a move towards increased `partnering` with the ANA, as well as the Afghan National Police, was outlined in a speech by the Prime Minister in November 2009.

However, Gordon Brown also said that mentoring would need to continue as the strength and effectiveness of the ANA is increased and the `Afghanisation` of security in the country continues.

It is a view shared by Lt Col Colthup, who said:

"Certainly in the transitional period between where we are now and where we end up in say a year to two or three years` time, you can`t say that you can suddenly drop mentoring and just do partnering.

"I think that as the partnering relationship between the two partners builds and grows over time, that mutual trust and understanding between both gains real traction that you can scale back but not remove completely the amount of real mentoring that you do, and ultimately your mentors will transition into becoming advisors much as the British Army has done in other countries around the world, in Africa for example."

The strategy is moving apace and, as of late 2009, ISAF troops had trained over 90,000 Afghan troops nationally.

There is also a real sense within the 2 YORKS OMLT Battle Group that the effectiveness and discipline of the increasing numbers of ANA troops in Helmand is on an upward trend:

"You have to respect that the Afghans know the Afghan way of life," Major Radbourne said.

"They are tough warriors. They are quite determined fighters. It is focusing that determined warrior into an effective counter-insurgency soldier who knows when to go in hard and when a soft approach could be more effective."

To see how this is being achieved, further articles on some of the individuals from 2 YORKS involved with mentoring and partnering the ANA will be published over the next week.

Tomorrow, Lt Col Colthup gives his view from the top.

2010-02-08




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