Afghan National Army Commandos

Afghan National Army Commandos
Unit Shoulder Sleeve Insignia and Afghan commandos in 2010
Active	2007 - present
Country	Afghanistan
Branch	Afghan National Army
Role	Counter Terrorism Reconnaissance
Size	21,000 personnel in (2017)
Part of	ANA Special Operations Command
Headquarters	Camp Morehead, Kabul Province
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Commando units and formations are part of the Afghan National Army and were formed from existing Infantry battalions. The program was established in early 2007 with the intent of taking one conventional battalion from each of the ANA corps, giving them special training and equipment, and reorganizing based on a United States Army Rangers battalion. Each battalion is assigned to one of the seven military corps. The commandos comprise 7% of the Afghan security forces but conduct 70% to 80% of the fighting.

In August of 2017, General John W. Nicholson Jr., the commander of the Afghanistan war effort, said: "The [commandos] have never lost a battle...The Taliban have never won against the commandos...They never will."

The training is conducted at the Morehead Commando Training Center, a former Taliban training compound located six miles south of Kabul, Afghanistan. The training center is named after United States Army 5th Special Forces Group soldier Master Sergeant Kevin Morehead, who was killed in Iraq in September 2003.

The training of supply, logistics and operations has been conducted by mentors from Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan, United States Special Operations Forces, French Special Forces, ANA cadre and Military Professional Resources Inc. (MPRI).

The 12-week program has three concurrent training sections for the entire course. The primary and bulk of the training is geared for the Infantry line companies with a focus on individual skills and small unit tactics. To support the line companies, the Headquarters and Headquarters Company receives special training in specific skills such as mortars, medical care, and communications. The third section focuses on the Battalion staff, their core areas of responsibility and function as the Command and Control (C2).

Upon graduation, each Commando Battalion returns to its designated Corps area along with an embedded Special Forces A-Team and begins using an 18-week training cycle that breaks down to six weeks each of train-up, missions and recovery. Of the five active duty United States Special Forces Groups, 3rd Group and 7th Group have been rotating responsibility as the main effort for continued training and advising in the Afghanistan theater.