ANA opens new artillery training centre

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ANA soldiers are shown here firing a D-30 howitzer during a live fire demonstration in Afghanistan's Logar Province Source: US Army


The Afghan National Army (ANA) opened a new Regional Artillery Training Center at Camp Eagle, in Afghanistan's Zabul province on 30 December 2013, according to NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) there.

"The new training centre will allow ANA soldiers from all brigades across Afghanistan to receive training and instruction in all areas of field artillery," ISAF said in a statement. In the near term training will be aided by members of the US Army's 1st Infantry Division's security force assistance teams that are stationed at nearby Forward Operating Base Apache.

"Corps Regional Military Training Centers have been authorised by the ANA chief of general staff to conduct artillery training at their level to complement and bridge their needs from the training provided by the Artillery School located in Kabul," a spokesperson from the NATO Training Mission - Afghanistan (NTM-A) told IHS Jane'son 13 January 2014.

"The national school continues to be the formal national training institution for the ANA and falls under the responsibility of the ANA Training and Education Command," the spokesperson explained.

NTM-A said that there are currently no plans to establish other regional artillery training centres in Afghanistan. Rather, the new centre at Camp Eagle is based on the corps commanders "using their resources to meet their specific training needs, supported by their coalition Security Forces Advisory Teams", the spokesperson added.

Artillery fires will be a key enabler for the ANA as US and NATO forces are withdrawing the majority of their forces from Afghanistan by the end of 2014, and the ANA has to date relied heavily upon ISAF for fires and close air support (CAS).

The nascent Afghan Air Force is not likely to be proficient or well enough equipped to conduct CAS missions, so this role is expected to be mainly filled with artillery or mortar fires.

Accordingly, the ANA has received 122 mm D-30 howitzers and its troops have been training on these, operating them alongside ISAF personnel in combat situations as a counter-indirect fire capability. At several bases and outposts the D-30s support 155 mm M777s used by US and NATO forces.
ANA opens new artillery training centre - IHS Jane's 360