Drastic improvement for Afghan Special Forces at Warrior Competition

The Afghan Nation­al Army Spe­cial Oper­a­tions Com­mand (ANASOC) team placed 14th out of 32 inter­na­tion­al teams dur­ing the 4th Annu­al War­rior Com­pe­ti­tion in Amman, Jor­dan, May 2–6.

Afghan Nation­al Army Spe­cial Oper­a­tions Com­mand (ANASOC) com­pe­ti­tion team com­pet­ed in the 4th Annu­al War­rior Com­pe­ti­tion in Amman, Jor­dan May 2–6. Source: NATO Click to enlarge

The com­pe­ti­tion was host­ed to pro­vide a glob­al forum for the exchange of Spe­cial Oper­a­tions Forces (SOF) and Counter Ter­ror­ism (CT) tac­tics and tech­niques, to net­work with inter­na­tion­al SOF and CT nations, test new equip­ment and prac­tices, and engage in a chal­leng­ing com­bat ori­ent­ed competition. 

Last year was the first time the Afghans par­tic­i­pat­ed and they were ranked last. This year’s team was made up of men from the ANA Com­man­dos and Spe­cial Forces and their improve­ment can be attrib­uted to weeks of train­ing and men­tor­ing from Cana­di­an Spe­cial Oper­a­tions Forces (CANSOF) advisors. 

“Our feel­ing was that we were very proud, by bring­ing the Afghanistan Army, which is new, and par­tic­i­pat­ing against coun­tries that have had a lot of time for train­ing and devel­op­ment,” said Capt. Abdull Matin, team leader for the ANASOC team through an inter­preter. “We are in the war zone right now but we were to par­tic­i­pate in a hard com­pe­ti­tion against the best of the best; we suc­ceed­ed against those teams and were proud to rep­re­sent Afghanistan and accom­plish our mission.” 

The event was bro­ken into a five day com­pe­ti­tion, which was com­prised of 32 inter­na­tion­al teams from North Amer­i­ca, Europe, Africa, and Asia. Through­out the com­pe­ti­tion, each team par­tic­i­pat­ed in basic and advanced pre­ci­sion rifle events, meth­ods of entry, pre­ci­sion pis­tol, CT obsta­cle course, and a tow­er run. 

“Obvi­ous­ly the com­pe­ti­tion played a sig­nif­i­cant role for us. We were able to learn from the expe­ri­ence and the new equip­ment. Also, we were able to learn and exchange expe­ri­ences with all of the NATO coun­tries. It meant so much for us to rep­re­sent our coun­try and show that we real­ly could keep up with the rest of the coun­tries,” said Matin. 

The ANASOC team trained 52 days for the event with equip­ment that most of their com­peti­tors would con­sid­er basic and yet, they were able to place 14th out of the 32 teams. Dur­ing their time train­ing for the War­rior Com­pe­ti­tion, the team pre­pared for the com­pe­ti­tion with long runs, obsta­cle cours­es, timed and weight­ed pulls, and prac­tic­ing 6 shoot­ing sta­tions across 4 fir­ing ranges. 

“The team of guys here is light years ahead of where your stan­dard com­man­do is with their indi­vid­ual skills,” said a CANSOF men­tor. “If they car­ry on with this same type of train­ing next year and con­tin­ue to evolve and pre­pare for this, then there’s no rea­son they can’t be in the top 10, or bet­ter, top 5.” 

NATO Train­ing Mis­sion-Afghanistan is a coali­tion of 38 troop-con­tribut­ing nations charged with assist­ing the Gov­ern­ment of the Islam­ic Repub­lic of Afghanistan in gen­er­at­ing a capa­ble and sus­tain­able Afghan Nation­al Secu­ri­ty Force ready to take lead of their country’s secu­ri­ty by 2014. For more infor­ma­tion about NTM‑A, vis­it http://www.ntm‑a.com/.

Source:
Allied Com­mand Oper­a­tions
NATO