Operational Mentor and Liaison Teams

Background

An Operational Mentor and Liaison Team (OMLT, pronounced “omelette”) is a group of ISAF soldiers organized in multidisciplinary teams to work with a specific formation of the Afghan National Army (ANA). This international professional development initiative is under way throughout the ANA to develop the collective and individual skills required to achieve and maintain peace and stability in Afghanistan.

The OMLTs are also responsible for liaison between the ANA and ISAF at the provincial level. (Both ISAF and the ANA are deployed across Afghanistan by provinces: each province has a Corps of the ANA and an ISAF Task Force.) This arrangement ensures that the ANA receives the resources and information it needs to conduct joint operations with ISAF task forces, and ISAF is fully aware of the state of ANA operational capability.

Canadian OMLTs

Work with the Afghan National Army

In Kandahar Province, a Canadian OMLT advises and mentors the units and individual soldiers of the 1st Brigade of the ANA’s 205^th Corps, and provides liaison with Task Force Kandahar, headquartered at Kandahar Airfield. (Task Force Kandahar is the ISAF designation for its Canadian contingent. The Canadian designation for this 2,500-strong formation is Joint Task Force Afghanistan.)

The OMLT in Kandahar Province comprises about 200 Canadian soldiers whose duties include delivering training to ANA units, advising and sometimes supervising ANA soldiers and their commanders, and modelling the skills and attitudes they teach.

The 1^st Brigade, 205^th Corps ANA consists of five kandaks (a unit like a battalion of infantry, with about 600 men) and a headquarters, for a total of about 3,000 men. When the kandaks are ready, the OMLT goes with them on joint operations with the Canadian battle group that is deployed with Joint Task Force Afghanistan.

The work teams that make up the OMLT are divided between Camp Hero, the 1^st Brigade training base at Kandahar Airfield, and the forward operating bases set up across Kandahar Province by Joint Task Force Afghanistan.

Work with the Afghan National Police

In September 2007, the Canadian OMLT formed a sub-unit to work with the Afghan National Police (ANP). Called the Police OMLT or POMLT (“pomlette”), this temporary group was formed in cooperation with Afghan government authorities, the ANP, and Joint Task Force Afghanistan.

The POMLT has a mandate to develop the professionalism and autonomy of the ANP by providing training and mentoring services and expert advice, and by facilitating liaison between the ANP and the ANA and ISAF. This professional development initiative is expected to help the ANP in Kandahar Province increase its capabilities and extend the legitimacy and authority of the government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.

Currently, the POMLT’s work teams are made up of soldiers from combat arms units and the military police. These multidisciplinary teams work with ANP units serving at police substations across Kandahar Province.

Further information

For more information on co-operation between ISAF and the Afghan national security forces, check out the following links:

• Operational Mentor and Liaison Teams (ISAF fact sheet in English only)
• NATO support to the ANA (ISAF fact sheet in English only)
• OMLT: Slowly working themselves out of a job (The Maple Leaf / La Feuille d’érable Vol 10, Afghanistan special)