Afghans Will be Ready to Take up the IED Challenge by 2014 Says ISAF

LONDON, May 6, 2011 - Ahead of the annual Counter IED conference in London this June, the ISAF
Counter-IED (improvised explosive device) Chief of Staff has stated that he
is confident that Afghan forces will be both trained and equipped to a
sufficient standard to take on the role of defeating the insurgent devices
when coalition forces are eventually withdrawn from Afghanistan.

In a recent Defence IQ podcast interview, Lt. Col. Martin Gliniecki of
the British Armed Forces and head of the strategy at HQ ISAF to counter the
ever-present threat of IEDs, forecast the readiness of Afghan National
Security Forces (ANSF) by 2014.

"The start of the training is overseen by NTMA (NATO Training Mission -
Afghanistan), setting the standards required, so only then will we allow
either soldiers or a contractor to train against that requirement, and
therefore we are pretty confident that they are trained and assessed to the
right competencies," he said.

"Certainly no EOD (explosive ordnance disposal) Afghan will be going out
without the right equipment if, we as ISAF, as mentors, are doing our jobs
properly.

"In the timeframe of 2014, we should be able to develop, with our current
strategy, the right number of EOD teams with the right capabilities and
equipment in time. That's certainly the plan."

Gliniecki went on to point out that a decrease in casualties will be an
encouragement to Afghan forces when the hand-over takes place.

He will be running a live video stream session from Afghanistan at the
5th Annual Counter IED conference to cover these issues in detail.

The 2011 event, hosted by Defence IQ, is set to present focused sessions
that include analysis by the U.K. MoD on staying ahead of the evolving IED
capabilities, U.S. Army insight into the use of forensics to trace networks
more effectively, and multinational approaches to training and coordination
in order to meet national objectives.

The full audio interview can be listened to at bit.ly/iS1HC9.

To find out more about the event, which will take place on June 20-22
in London, visit www.c-ieds.com. Alternatively, call
+44(0)20-7368-9334, or email defence@iqpc.co.uk.

.