Aussies to be active at Kandahar

But confirm will not take lead at Uruzgan when Dutch depart (via Spotlight on Military News and International Affairs):

1) Diggers braced for push into Taliban heartland

A COALITION victory in a key operation to secure Afghanistan's Taliban heartland of southern Kandahar would "suck the life out of the insurgency", defence chief Angus Houston told a Senate estimates hearing yesterday.

In one of his most upbeat assessments of the war so far, Air Chief Marshal Houston indicated there would be a major role for Australian forces as the Kandahar operation gathered momentum.

The US-led operation is expected to involve thousands of Afghan and NATO troops, but would also include Australian special forces [more here] and newly trained Afghan troops and their Australian mentors, he said.

The new operation to secure lawless Kandahar would build on the success of an offensive in neighbouring Helmand province [well...].

"Kandahar city itself is not controlled by the Taliban but it does have a number of serious governance issues which the coalition intends to address [emphasis added, typical Aussie understatement, more on the city here]," Air Chief Marshal Houston said...

In 2006 when the ADF had a 1400-strong force deployed in Iraq and 500 in Afghanistan, East Timor exploded into violence requiring a 3200-strong taskforce to be deployed to Dili [that's 5,100 on expeditionary ops at one time, folks]...

There are 1550 ADF personnel deployed in Afghanistan [more here], including a 300-strong special forces task group -- the second-highest number of special forces after the US.

2) Australia to take greater Afghan training role

AUSTRALIA will dramatically increase its training role in Afghanistan in the coming months but will not take over from the Dutch as the lead nation in Oruzgan province because it would leave the nation exposed closer to home, defence chiefs have told a Senate committee.

The chief of the Australian Defence Force, Angus Houston, revealed that Australian troops would take over the training of the entire 4th Brigade of the Afghan National Army, as the occupying coalition strives to build an Afghan defence force that can stand on its own when foreign troops eventually leave.

More than 700 Australian troops have been mentoring two battalions - known as kandaks - from the 4th Brigade, but by the end of the year, they will have responsibility for training all six kandaks, some of which are expected to take part in the intensifying offensive against insurgents in Kandahar province [as with Canadian mentors and ANA going to Helmand this February for the Marjah operation--moving ANA units around, at last, more here]...

3) Australian defence chiefs say taking over Dutch role in Afghanistan could overstretch military

Australia will not take over the leadership role in restive southern Afghanistan from departing Dutch forces because the Australian military could become overstretched, national defence chiefs said Monday.

Most of Australia's 1,550 troops in Afghanistan are based in Uruzgan province where the Dutch lead the International Security Assistance Force.

Australia is regarded by some observers as a natural successor to the Dutch in the province, while retired Maj. Gen. Jim Molan, an Australian who served as the U.S.-led international forces' Chief of Operations in Iraq in 2004-2005, argues that Australia can and should commit hundreds more troops to the Afghanistan campaign.

Afghanistan will be among the top issues discussed when President Barack Obama visits Australia in June.

With the Netherlands set to withdraw its 1,600 troops from Afghanistan from August, Australian Defence Minister John Faulkner said on Monday "another first tier NATO nation" needed to take over the Dutch leadership role in Uruzgan.

Faulkner said Australia had to keep troops in reserve to deal with emergencies in its own region, and the United States had not asked him to fill the Dutch void...

Air Marshal Angus Houston, Australia's Defence Force Chief, said Australia was already making a "very reasonable contribution" from a [permanent] defence force of 58,00 personnel [emphasis added, cf. Update here]...