The Army Academy will provide artillery training to altogether 30 U.S. soldiers in total in the Artillery School from 16 to 21 December 2018. The U.S. soldiers undertaking this training will be operating in Afghanistan as artillery instructors to the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF). The training provided will draw from the Finnish substance-matter expertise in utilising the Soviet-manufactured 122H63 artillery equipment (D-30).
The training objective involves enhancing the participants’ competence in training the artillery personnel of the Afghan National Security Forces. The training undertaken will include a weapons and firing technological exercise event to be conducted in the Niinisalo Garrison and in the Pohjankangas firing range area that will incorporate instructing the handling and utilisation of the weapons and ammunition of the 122H63 artillery gun (D-30).
Providing training to the security authorities in Afghanistan aims to standardise the procedures of the troops partaking in crisis management in Afghanistan. The training events conducted will facilitate the sustained cooperating conducted between the contributing nations in the field of crisis management in particular.
This training of soldiers forms part of the Military Advisor Training programme of the crisis management operation in Afghanistan whose objective remains the constant development of the security structures in Afghanistan for the country’s stability advancement.
The first training event of this type was organised in Finland in August 2008. Following this start, Finland has provided training to hundreds of artillery instructors from abroad to serve as instructors in Afghanistan.
