History of the Afghan Armed Forces (2002–2021)

After the formation of the Karzai administration in late 2001, the Afghan Armed Forces were gradually reestablished by the United States and its allies. Initially, a new land force, the Afghan National Army (ANA), was created, whose planned size grew from 70,000 in 2002 to, eventually, a target of 194,000 set in mid-2011. The army's air arm, the Afghan National Army Air Corps, later split off to become an independent branch, the Afghan Air Force (AAF). The Afghan Army and Air Force were supervised by the Afghan Ministry of Defence. Commandos and Special Forces were also trained as part of the army. Training was managed initially by the U.S. Office of Military Cooperation-Afghanistan (2002–05); followed by the Office of Security Cooperation-Afghanistan (2005–06); and then Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan (2006); then integrated into the NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan (2009), finally succeeded by the Resolute Support Mission from 2014. Sedra comments that the 'constant changes to the architecture of the reform process contributed to the 'institutional schizophrenia' that engulfed it. Constant turnover in the U.S. Army personnel supervising the programmes would not have helped. By 2006, more than 60,000 former militiamen from around the country were disarmed. In 2007, it was reported that Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration programmes had dismantled 274 paramilitary organizations, reintegrated over 62,000 militia members into civilian life, and recovered more than 84,000 weapons, including heavy weapons. But The New York Times also reported a rise in hoarded weapons and a growing Taliban threat, even in the north of the country. The Afghan National Development Strategy of 2008 explained that the aim of Disbandment of Illegal Armed Groups programme was to ban all illegal armed groups in all provinces of the country. Approximately 2,000 such groups were identified; most of them surrendered to the Afghan government or joined the new armed forces.