Julie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Cooper on 2016-01-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many members of the Afghan army have been trained by British servicemen since 2001.

Penny Mordaunt

Since 2001, alongside NATO partners, the UK has played an important role in developing the 350,000 strong Afghan National Security Forces through a range of training, mentoring and advisory activities.

During Operation HERRICK (2002-2014) UK Armed Forces personnel mentored and advised 3rd Brigade, 215 Corps of the Afghan National Army in Helmand. During this time, UK forces partnered Afghan personnel on operations, allowing them to learn from experience and enabling them, over time, to take the lead for operations themselves. The UK also supported the development of Afghan military instructors.

Since the end of 2014, as part of Operation TORAL, the UK has mentored and advised the Afghan instructors at the Afghan National Army Officer Academy (ANAOA) in Kabul. Up to 1140 Afghan cadets can be enrolled at ANAOA each year.

At present as part of wider NATO activity, the UK also has a small team deployed to Helmand to further assist the development of 215 Corps.