Training and Protection Battalion
A training and protection battalion ( AusbSchutzBtl ) is as a fast attack formation , the operational reserve of the commander of the regional responsibility zone of the Army, the Regional Area Command North (RACN) , the ISAF in northern Afghanistan .
assignment
The protection of the Afghan population and the training of the Afghan security forces were brought to the fore by changing the current mandate for GECON ISAF in the Bundestag. With this change in order, the Bundeswehr has realigned its contingents. This led to the dissolution of the QRF associations and the establishment of training and protection battalions.
The deployment of a training and protection battalion enables a wide range of operations with reconnaissance missions, patrols or protection of convoys by controlling violent crowds or evacuation measures up to the fight against irregular forces. The association therefore consists of combat troops with protected wheeled vehicles and armored personnel carriers , as well as specialists in the disposal of ordnance such as mines or booby traps , forward air controllers for instructing helicopters or commanding fighter planes . It is essential that the military police and the federal police work together with their own forces with the use of service dogs, taking into account the customs of the population in the country of deployment and field intelligence forces . The use of female soldiers is of particular importance in the combat and medical forces.
A training and protection battalion is primarily intended to provide training support for the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) and to accompany them on missions as part of " partnering ". Together with the Afghan armed forces, these battalions are to gradually gain control of key districts in order to subsequently hand them over to the responsibility of the Afghan police. A safety vacuum should be avoided in this way. The Afghan forces are to be gradually enabled to take responsibility for security in Afghanistan. However, a weakness of the national forces, especially the Afghan national police, could also be observed due to short training periods and a different attitude to the job of the police officer.
The basic idea of "partnering" is that in the future the ISAF forces will no longer move out of the field camps to their operations and then return after a few days, as was already practiced during the Vietnam War with the Search and Destroy operations , but that once occupied territory be permanent Clear and Hold is held in the operations command by the Afghan security forces. The ISAF should take over the external security. "Partnering" does not mean that patrols of three Germans and three Afghans are to be run in the future, but rather that entire units operate side by side. The Provincial Reconstruction Teams can better fulfill their original function of supporting reconstruction by relieving the burden of operations management. This type of operation was also carried out as heart and minds during the Vietnam War . In Vietnam, as in Afghanistan, this went hand in hand with a nationalization of acts of war.
See the war in Afghanistan since 2001 under Military Strategies OEF / ISAF
Operating principles and equipment
From autumn 2010, with the command takeover of ISAF by David H. Petraeus , a new strategy of counterinsurgency used in the war in Afghanistan since 2,001th
The operations take place in four phases, which can flow smoothly into one another:
- Shape - intelligence gathering and education
- Clear - expulsion of enemy forces
- Hold - holding the cleared area
- Build - ensuring security through Afghan forces and civil construction
The training and protection battalions are accordingly robustly equipped: each comprises around 700 soldiers, divided into two infantry companies, a pioneer company and a reconnaissance company. In addition to armored wheeled vehicles, the armament also includes Marder armored personnel carriers. In addition, the battalions can fall back on the firepower of the three self-propelled howitzers 2000 in the Kunduz field camp and on mortars.
Formation of the ASB of the Regional Command North (RC North)
Within the ISAF network, the Bundeswehr is responsible for Northern Afghanistan, the Regional Command North (RCN). There, in Kunduz and in Mazar-i Sharif, it sets up a training and protection battalion. The training and protection battalion in Kunduz was fully operational by the end of August and in Mazar-i Sharif by the end of October 2010.
The commander of Regional Command North, Major General Hans-Werner Fritz , put the first ASB - the Kunduz Task Force - into service at the beginning of August 2010. He subordinated the two infantry companies, the reconnaissance company and parts of the support forces of the Kunduz Regional Reconstruction Team (PRT) to the Kunduz Task Force.
The second training and protection battalion - the Task Force Mazar-e-Sharif - has been in action since the end of October under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Nikolaus Carstens. The backbone of the association is formed by soldiers from the 232 Mountain Infantry Battalion in Bischofswiesen, reinforced by pioneers from Ingolstadt, reconnaissance soldiers from Füssen and a medical component from Leer in East Friesland. The association has a total of around 670 soldiers. The end of the mission for the soldiers of this training and protection battalion is planned for March 2011.
Calls
Two outposts southwest of Kunduz are permanently occupied, the so-called Heights 431 and 432. In the province of Baghlan, ISAF and Afghans have also set up an outpost near the village of Kilagai. It has been permanently occupied by the Afghans since mid-March and once successfully defended against an attack by the insurgents.
As part of Operation Halmazag , another outpost was set up near the town of Quatliam in the Char Darah district . Since the rebels were driven out of the south of the district in the course of the operation, the outpost at height 431 was closed .
The operation laid the foundation for the pacification of the troubled district of Chahar Darreh . In the course of 2011, the reinforced combat companies of the Kunduz Training and Protection Battalion expanded their operations further south. This enabled the height 432 to be handed over to the Afghan security forces. In addition, the focus of operations management shifted to the north of the district in the second half of the year. In the last quarter of 2011 the insurgents were driven out of Nawabad , the largest town in Chahar Darreh.
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Marcel Bohnert : COIN at the base: To implement the concept in a combat company of the Kunduz Task Force . In: R. Schroeder & S. Hansen (eds.) (2015): Stabilization deployments as a national task . Nomos: Baden-Baden, p. 252f.