Report - United States Department of Defense

UNCLASSIFIED
SECTION 2 – AFGHAN SECURITY FORCES GROWTH,
DEVELOPMENT AND OPERATIONS 11
2.1: SUMMARY
The single most important development during the reporting period was the assumption of the
lead role for security by the ANSF across most of Afghanistan. Although ISAF training and
enabler/combat support will continue through the end of 2014, the ANSF is now shouldering the
majority of the burden of fighting the insurgency. Overall the ANSF has exceeded expectations
in its ability to take over the counterinsurgency from ISAF, although progress was uneven in
some geographic and functional areas.
The clearest indicator of the changing roles that the ANSF and ISAF are undertaking is the
number of operations conducted by each. From October 2012 to February 2013, the ANSF led
87 and 86 percent of total conventional and special operations, respectively. 12 ISAF unilateral
operations accounted for just six and five percent of conventional and special operations,
respectively. In many provinces, unilateral ISAF operations accounted for less than one percent
of total operations, and the vast majority of these unilateral operations were routine patrols such
as securing the areas around major bases.
11 This section is submitted in fulfillment of requirements of section 1231 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008, as
amended.
12 IJC updated its system for counting conventional operations in December 2013 which required the RCs to report more types of operations
with greater specificity as to combined operations with ANSF, i,e., unilateral, enabled, combined, and led. This change did not alter the overall
trend of ANSF increasingly leading a greater share of conventional operations.
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