Old territory for new unit

Camp Dahlke – Captain Joe Fontana, a team leader with the US army’s 1st Security Force Assistance Brigade (SFAB), is part of a new unit but he is working on problems that have been stubbornly familiar to American military advisors in Afghanistan for years.

The 1st SFAB was formed last year as a new force of experienced advisors, to focus US army training and support for Afghan troops and, in future, for other foreign armies.

It deployed to Afghanistan in March, working with the Afghan army’s (ANA) 203rd Corps and putting US advisors, previously largely restricted to Corps headquarters, together with frontline brigades and battalions for the first time since most international forces left in 2014.

The SFAB has arrived at a time of increasing pressure on the ANA from Taliban fighters, who overran a series of outposts and stormed the strategic city of Ghazni this week.

The problems they have found are the same ones that existed a decade ago when the Nato-led coalition began to reshape Afghan forces into an army on US lines – poor logistics and organisation as well as a reliance on static checkpoints that are vulnerable to attack.

Like other advisors, Fontana, who served in a combat unit in the southern Afghan provinces of Zabul and Kandahar in 2011-12 as well as in Iraq, speaks admiringly of the fighting spirit of Afghan soldiers.

But he said the army is dogged by persistent problems with supplies, maintaining equipment and making sure units get proper support, issues which for years have been an obstacle to creating Afghan forces capable of standing on their own.

“They’re not scared of much, they will fight back fine, they’re good shots. Some of their soldiers are pretty crack,” said Fontana. “But it comes down to logistics and mission command.”

The advisors help coordinate air strikes and other tactical support from US forces and work with Afghan commanders on planning operations, frequently pressing them to move away from isolated checkpoints.

SFAB advisors also assisted the 203rd Corps, which is responsible for the volatile provinces south of Kabul, on the front lines in Ghazni.