CASR

Canadian
American
Strategic
Review

NATO~ISAF  –  Southern Afghanistan  –  Reinforcements  –  March  2007 Spring Forward  –  Push Taliban Forces Back:  NATO Offers Reinforcements for  Counter-Insurgency in  Afghan  South Recent  news  reports  reveal  more  reinforcements  from  NATO  Allies UK  Defence  Minister  announces  new  equipment  &  troops  for  Afghanistan On 26 February 2007,  Defence  Minister  Des Browne announced to the House of Commons that the MoD would be sending reinforcements to Helmand province to counter the possibility of a 'spring offensive' mounted by the Taliban in the south and east of Afghanistan. The following day,  The  Telegraph  published a concise summary that was very useful for interested laymen. Edited excerpts appear below. More than 1400 troops will begin arriving  in May 2007,  bringing the total number of  British troops in the country to 7700, committed until 2009.  The new battery of four (4)  multiple-launch rocket systems (MLRS) will be able to hit targets at 70 km. Each of  these tracked vehicles is equipped  with twelve (12)  GPS-guided  rockets. Fourteen (14)  more  Warrior  Infantry Fighting Vehicles (IFV) will provide ground troops  with  greater  direct  fire  support.   In  addition,  close  air  support  will  be boosted  by  four  (4)  GR9  Harrier  ground-attack  aircraft.  These  will be  added to  the  seven  (7)  already  based  in  Kandahar  Air  Field  (KAF).  Also  destined for  KAF,  are  four  (4)  Sea  King  helicopters, sent "to  help  the  severely under- resourced  helicopter  fleet  currently  relying  on  seven  over-worked  Chinooks". German  Cabinet  has  agreed  to  send  six  (6)  Recce  Tornadoes  to  the  South February 8, 2007 marked the beginning of the informal  meeting of  NATO  defence ministers in Seville, Spain. The Guardian newspaper  announced  that the German cabinet had decided to send six Tornado jets to Afghanistan to be used in recce operations  against  the  Taliban.  "The defence minister, Franz Josef Jung, said the  jets,  equipped  with  cannons  and infra - red  cameras,  would  be  used  to [give allies] aerial images of the Taliban, but  [would  not  be  used]  in  combat." Poland  Agrees  to  Send  1000  more  troops  to  Afghanistan  –  without caveats In  early  November  2006,  Associated Press  ( AP )  announced  that  Poland would  deploy  about  1,000  troops  in Eastern Afghanistan by February 2007. Defence  Minister,  Radek  Sikorski  [1] told  allies  that  Warsaw  would  allow the soldiers to operate  in the "volatile" southern  provinces,  where  NATO  is already fighting the Taliban insurgents. US takes command and keeps troops from the 10th Mountain Division in theatre On  Sunday,  04  February  2007 ,  ISAF  was  placed under the command of  General Dan McNeill,  of  the US  Army  82nd Airborne Division.  There are 40,000 ISAF troops in Afghanistan.  About 12,000 of  those are US  troops. [2]  To  mount  a  robust  response to the  'spring  offensive',  the  US  will  extend  the  tour of  some  soldiers  from  10th  Mountain  Division by four  months.  The 3,200 soldiers  of  10th  Mountain Division are  currently  deployed  along  the  eastern border  with  Pakistan.  One battalion –  roughly  650 troops –  from  that  division  will  be  formed  into  a   'theatre  reserve' ,  rapid  reaction  force,  capable  of moving  wherever  it  is  required.  This will  give the new  ISAF commander  much  greater  flexibility.  [3]       [1]    Mr. Sikorski resigned as Defence Minister on 07 February 2007.               This resignation is unlikely to alter plans for troop deployment.       [2]    The other 12,000 US troops deployed in the country are under                the  Combined  Forces  Command  –  Afghanistan  ( CFC - A ).       [3]    This information was made public in press releases from the US Army.