After discussing the Resolute Support mission during the NATO's Military Committee/Chiefs of Defense session in Brussels this week, Joint Chiefs Chairman Marine Corps Gen. Joe Dunford said he detects among allied nations "a strong commitment to finish what they started" in Afghanistan.
"I think most NATO nations have invested quite a bit, and everybody is interested in landing this in a good place,” he said.
Army Gen. John Nicholson, commander of the Resolute Support Mission, briefed the chiefs on the strategy in Afghanistan in 2016 and talked about the strategy for 2017, Dunford told reporters traveling with him.
Current Ops in Afghanistan
Nicholson also gave a campaign update to all of the alliance members plus partners who have troops supporting the effort in Afghanistan.
“The Afghans have been very aggressive this year in going after the Taliban early, so they understood what the Taliban campaign plan was for the summer,” Dunford said. “What we think is the Afghans did some preemptive operations to break that up.”
The chairman mentioned that the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant has been under enormous pressure in Afghanistan, and Taliban forces took on the foreign terror group causing “quite a bit” of ISIL attrition.
Czech Gen. Petr Pavel, NATO's Military Committee chairman, said yesterday that he expected the European allies and partners to maintain about the same number of forces in the train-and-assist mission in Afghanistan next year.
Comprehensive Commitment
Dunford said he was pleasantly surprised by the attitude of his fellow chiefs of defense, and the will of American forces remains strong, too.
“Special operators, aviation units, human exploitation units, intel units have all been running pretty hard,” he said. “I ask the question and … what I sense is when they know what the mission is, and they believe in it and are committed, they keep wanting to run.”
U.S. leaders across the spectrum are keeping an eye on the deployment-to-dwell time, Dunford said. “From a readiness perspective, it is really two issues,” he said. “One is the human factor, and then there is the capability development factor –- you need time between deployments to reset.”
In infantry terms, Dunford wants “sustained rate of fire -- not a cyclic rate of fire.” The cyclic rate means the gunner jams his finger on trigger until the barrel burns out. Short, aimed bursts allow a weapon to be used far longer.
Defense leaders continue the conversation with President Barack Obama about troop levels in Afghanistan. Now there are 9,800 troops in the country, and they will remain there through the year. The plan calls for that number to drop to 5,500 at the end of 2016.
“General Nicholson has not provided a recommendation for 2017 that is different from the decision that has been made,” the chairman said. “At some point in the future, we will talk about that with the president.”
NATO allies are concerned about the number of American forces dropping, Dunford said.
“The biggest thing they were concerned about was enabling capability, especially the lift and sustainment capability,” he said. “I was able to tell them that was inside of the 5,500 that we would go to, and [we would] still have the ability to do the intelligence, the strategic lift, medevac support, the aviation capability.”