After more than a decade of war, the ISAF Joint Command (IJC) is transitioning from enabling Afghan National Security Forces' (ANSF) combat operations as part of Operation ENDURING FREEDOM toward functionally based-security force assistance (FB-SFA) during the RESOLUTE SUPPORT (RS) phase of the campaign. During RS, Coalition forces will rarely engage in tactical-level mentoring. Instead, they will provide institutional advisory support focused on systems and processes to Afghan National Army (ANA) Corps and Afghan National Police (ANP) Zones from Corps-level platforms. Over the past year the ANSF have proven that they are capable of securing the country; they led operations and secured multiple high profile events including the Loya Jirga, the Ghazni Islamic Festival, Nawrouz celebrations, and most importantly, the recent Afghan elections. Now we will help them develop the institutions and systems necessary to ensure their self-sustainability for the long-term.
Several actions during the national elections, which served as a crucible of sorts, reveal how far both IJC and the ANSF have come and where we are going. The ANSF, with minimal IJC support, disrupted the insurgents before, during, and after the elections and made significant developments concurrent with election preparations. Throughout, IJC balanced retrograde and redeployment (R2) with operations to set conditions for the transition to RS. Looking ahead, we must encourage the ANSF to maintain their momentum and, through FB-SFA, continue to support their progression towards professional, institutional, and self-sustainable solutions. To be successful, this transition to FB-SFA will require a change in how we do business, but more importantly it will require a change in mindset.
Maintaining momentum
The ANSF, with minimal advisory and enabler support, relentlessly pursued and severely disrupted the insurgents before, during and after the elections. Of note, the ANSF conducted nearly twice as many operations this past winter, including numerous operations at the battalion-level, than during the same period in 2013. The ANSF's pace disrupted the insurgents and their use of enablers, especially information operations, prevented the enemy from gaining the initiative. During this period, the ANSF demonstrated the utility of Operations Coordination Centers (OCCs) -- the Afghan version of command fusion cells -- for integrating plans and operations at the district, provincial, and regional levels. Borne out of the layered-security concept, the ANSF increasingly prioritized OCCs prior to the elections and successfully used them to coordinate responses to multiple pre-election attacks, including those against the Serena Hotel, the Roots of Peace headquarters, and the Independent Election Commission headquarters in Kabul. On election day, the ANSF, including the Afghan Air Forces (AAF), performed admirably by securing polling centers for seven to eight million voters. Afterwards, the ANSF continued their unrelenting pace to exploit success, immediately transitioning from election security to small-scale disruption operations. From the start, IJC supported them with advisors and enablers like air weapons teams; however their success was ultimately due to their own efforts.
We will continue to encourage the ANSF to maintain operational momentum against the enemy during this fighting season. Throughout the year, IJC capabilities will steadily decrease and combat power, including enablers like ISR, will be at a premium. Nevertheless, we will support the ANSF with enablers and other assets through the end of the fighting season to help them sustain the tempo of their operations and keep the enemy off balance. This will help set the conditions for their assumption of full security responsibility in 2015. The ANSF have demonstrated proficiency in the information domain, and going forward we will spur them to maintain information dominance by countering the insurgents' narrative whenever possible. Further, we will reinforce to the ANSF the importance of OCCs for operational effectiveness and encourage them to institutionalize interagency coordination across their security pillars (Army, Police, and Intelligence) to ensure sustainable cooperation. Taken together, these actions will provide space -- both operational and informational -- for when the ANSF assume full security responsibility. Moreover, as IJC support steadily decreases and the ANSF assume an ever greater share of security responsibilities, it will help both sides make the cognitive shift toward their respective new roles.
Empowering the ANSF
Concurrent with election preparations, we helped our ANSF partners develop sustainable logistics, OD/C-IED, medical, intelligence and training management systems. Their improvements have been noteworthy. When it comes to sustainment, the Afghans made tangible progress at the operational and tactical levels; they now supply and maintain equipment across the force. More work is needed to develop robust supply chains and life-cycle management at the strategic level and to link them to operational/tactical systems. One critical capability we have helped the ANSF develop is a strong cadre of trained EOD teams; they now fill 80 percent of their authorized teams and regularly conduct independent route clearance operations. The ANSF's medical system is steadily improving. They now have medical facilities at regional hubs across the country and regularly conduct over 85 percent of all CASEVACs on their own.
Finally, ANSF training programs continue to make progress. The ANA manage a robust training system across the warfighting functions, while the ANP Training General Command recently produced an annual training plan to guide training efforts for the coming year. The ANSF's institutional development is impressive but still evolving; we will continue to support these and other efforts to ensure their long-term success.
Moving forward, we will focus FB-SFA at the Corps-level and higher to empower the ANSF for the future. In particular, we will concentrate on key systems and enablers to promote confident, professional and flexible ANSF organizations. We will integrate our efforts horizontally and vertically by linking ministerial-level systems and policies with Corp-level practices. Our efforts will reinforce to our ANSF partners the importance of implementing requirements-based replenishment systems across all institutional functions. We will also encourage the ANSF to reorganize and standardize their training programs, thereby enabling more effective training management as they enhance the professionalization of their force. Our small-unit mentors, who are appropriately focused on their counterpart's immediate challenges, are limited in their ability to provide long-term sustainment and development advice. During RS, Corps-level advisors will focus instead on the development of ANSF systems and institutions. These specialized advisors must possess the skills to advise ANSF leaders on operational and strategic matters and be capable of applying a systems approach to affect institutional change.
Transitioning towards RESOLUTE SUPPORT
Moving towards RS, we realized the need to balance R2 against current operations, including election security and ANSF development in order to set conditions for the new mission. These past months have been marked by transitions and uncertainty; the challenge was prioritizing our efforts given ongoing operational requirements. In preparation for RS, multiple headquarters were reorganized and realigned to optimize support for FB-SFA. Similarly, our regional commands transitioned to Train, Advise, and Assist Commands (TAACs) to provide Corps and Police Zone-level advisory support. R2, which was executed simultaneously, enabled these transitions. We closed or transferred bases and steadily retrograded equipment, resulting in a decrease in IJC's operational reach and capabilities. Throughout, we balanced operational requirements, namely support to the ANSF, with R2 constraints while establishing a RS command structure that promotes integration from the national to the regional level.
During RS, which begins in January 2015, we will continue to focus on the development of ANSF institutions and processes to ensure their long-term sustainability. Planning suggests three phases -- Regional-Limited, Kabul-Centric, and Redeployment. During each phase, our footprint will gradually decrease as key FB-SFA platforms, namely TAACs, collapse from regional hubs to Kabul and eventually back to home station. RS will require a change in perspective; the ANSF will assume full security responsibility and Coalition forces will be responsible for advising the ANSF at the Corp-level and higher. The key to our success -- the sustainability of ANSF institutions -- is FB-SFA. To maximize the benefits of FB-SFA, we must place the right advisors with ANA Corps and Police Zones and ensure that they are capable of mentoring and educating their counterparts on institutional matters at the operational and strategic levels. This is no small matter. In fact, it is the critical final step in a 13-year process to help the Afghans build confident, professional, flexible and sustainable security organizations.
Conclusion
IJC is set to execute multiple transitions in the coming months. Some are structural while others are operational. Arguably the most important transition will be the cognitive shift -- both Coalition and ANSF -- towards FB-SFA. The ANSF's performance during the recent Afghan elections demonstrates that they are a proficient fighting force. They disrupted the insurgents throughout the elections and concurrently made significant operational improvements with minimal IJC assistance. IJC continually balanced R2 with current operations to set conditions for the transition to RS. Now we must encourage the ANSF to maintain their momentum and, through FB-SFA, institutionalize self-sustainable solutions for the long-term. In fact, our mission does not end on 31 December 2014, it just changes. Sacrificing blood, sweat and tears, the ANSF will continue to pursue the enemy. As the name of the operation suggests, we must remain resolute in our commitment and continue to support them. The success of the ANSF will ensure that all of the Coalition's sacrifices were not in vain.
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