Final evaluation Netherlands participation in ISAF 2006 - 2010

this situation as constraining, for it made it impossible for all additionalrequirements to be met. The commanders on location therefore had to setpriorities during deployment.Compared to earlier missions, the deployment of the TFU involved arelatively large number of civilian personnel, although it may seem limitedwhen set against the number of military personnel. The number of civilianrepresentatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs grew substantially duringthe course of the mission. At the outset of the mission, there were threeofficials from Foreign Affairs: one political adviser (POLAD), onedevelopment cooperation adviser (OSAD) and one cultural adviser (CULAD).The civilian team from Foreign Affairs was expanded with a CivilRepresentative (CIVREP) in the summer of 2007, and several extra POLADsand OSADs were added later. By the end of the mission, their number hadquadrupled to 12 civilian personnel per rotation. In addition to thediplomats from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the civilian personnelcomprised functional specialists (reserve officers), militarised interpretersand other militarised civilian personnel.Between 2006 and 2010, a total of 130 civil servants of the Ministry ofForeign Affairs were directly involved in the Netherlands’ mission inUruzgan. A total of over 60 civilian personnel participated in six-monthlyrotations in the Uruzgan PRT as POLADs, CULADs, OSADs or interpreters.During the mission, the composition and the number of officials constitutingthe PRT changed several times. The staffing of the political and socioeconomicdepartment of the embassy in Kabul was also doubled because ofthe mission. During the second half of the deployment (2008-2010), acounternarcotics adviser from the Ministry of the Interior and KingdomRelations joined the civilian team of the mission. From 2006, a politicaladviser was posted to the ISAF regional headquarters at Kandahar Airfieldevery six months, as a strategic detachment and also in the context of theperiods in which the Netherlands held command of RC-S.Besides the deployment in TFU and ATF, Dutch personnel were alsodeployed to the ISAF Headquarters, the IJC in Kabul, and the RC-S atKandahar Airfield. Dutch flag and general officers filled a number ofinfluential positions. The Dutch deployment for ISAF was supported bylogistic detachments stationed at Kandahar Airfield and in the UAE.5.3.1.2 Work-up phaseDutch service personnel are generically and organically (meaning in unitswith fixed compositions and under the command of their own staffs) trainedto the “Operationally Ready” level. For the mission in Uruzgan, the TaskForce was chosen as the form of deployment. For its specific task inUruzgan, this Task Force was formed as a composite unit, built up fromorganic entities and additional elements (for instance, a combination ofarmoured and airmobile infantry and marines). This ad hoc compositionmeant that stringent requirements were imposed on the preparations in thework-up phase in order to achieve the “Operationally Ready” level. Trainingpersonnel to perform non-organic tasks and to work with non-organicmateriel, the limited availability of the equipment to be used in Uruzgan(e.g. Bushmasters and night-vision equipment), and integration of thecomposite unit combined to form a great challenge.In the beginning of the mission, the work-up paths of civilian and militarypersonnel were largely separate. But before long it was acknowledged thata collective work-up would be beneficial to performance in the field. As themission progressed, efforts were made to improve the coordination of bothPage 89 of 133