ANA soldiers with Route Clearance Company, 1st Brigade, 203rd Corps, were trained and qualified to operate "Symphony," a mobile system used to counter the latest IEDs used on today's battlefield.
"The intent is for the Afghan forces to be able to teach themselves how to use the system," said Capt. Luke Plante, 3rd Brigade Combat Team?'s electronic warfare officer. "All of the training we have been doing ... has been geared to do that."
Plante and 1st Lt. Taylor Kilmer, executive officer with 4th Battalion, 25th Artillery Regiment, 3rd BCT, are responsible for providing tactical expertise as well as coordinating the training.
IEDs have been deployed by insurgents against both coalition and Afghan security forces for years. But their technology has advanced. Although the devices are still made of whatever materials insurgents can re-purpose, the methods of triggering them have changed in an effort to increase their effectiveness.
One of the more insidious methods is initiating the IEDs using wireless control devices, such as cell phones. The Symphony system is designed to defeat those devices from a safe distance, while on the move.
"RCIEDs are radio-controlled IEDs, which basically use the electromagnetic spectrum, particularly radio waves, to initiate them," Plante said. "The Symphony system overpowers those systems so they can?'t be initiated."
The Afghan soldiers received about one and a half hours of classroom instruction and six hours of hands-on training with the system. To graduate from the course, the students had to physically demonstrate how to power up, set up and correctly shut down the system.
"The field service representative commented that not a single mistake was made," Plante noted. "There were a couple of minor hesitations, but no one made a mistake."
The Symphony counter-RCIED system is among the latest additions to the growing list of critical yet supportable capabilities that are giving the Afghan forces the confidence they need to meet their mission requirements, especially when the last of the U.S. forces leave Afghanistan.
"It's a capability we can leave with the Afghans that can give them sustainability once we leave, as well as … increased force protection capabilities for operations," said Maj. Ryan Mayfield, 3rd BCT's fire support officer. "Everything we leave behind, we want it to be sustainable for them."
Mayfield said he is confident the Symphony system gives the Afghans a technology they can use to take their growing tactical abilities into the future.
"I think the system will make a difference," he said. "Their route-clearance efforts, by their own understanding of the terrain and environment, are very successful by their definition. But it is a system that gives them the ability to defeat radio-controlled IEDs, which brings them confidence."
Plante said the ability to sustain the program begins with focusing on transitioning the training responsibility from the U.S. to the Afghans from the start.
Approximately 10 classes have been taught at forward operating bases throughout the Spartan Brigade's area of responsibility with more to come.
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