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Resolute Support Mission (RSM) or Operation Resolute Support was a
NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two N ...
-led multinational mission in Afghanistan. It began on 1 January 2015 as the successor to the
International Security Assistance Force The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) was a multinational military mission in Afghanistan from 2001 to 2014. It was established by United Nations Security Council United Nations Security Council Resolution 1386, Resolution 1386 pursua ...
(ISAF), which was completed on 28 December 2014. Pursuant to
United Nations Security Council Resolution A United Nations Security Council resolution is a United Nations resolution adopted by the fifteen members of the Security Council (UNSC); the United Nations (UN) body charged with "primary responsibility for the maintenance of international pea ...
2189 of 2014, RSM was a noncombat mission aimed at advising and training Afghan security forces to provide long-term security to the country, under the aegis of the Security and Defence Cooperation Agreement BSA between the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
and
Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is borde ...
, which was originally supposed to run from 1 January 2015 and "shall remain in force until the end of 2024 and beyond" unless terminated with two years' advance notice. In October 2019, RSM had its largest size of troops, which was 17,178. Moreover, the RSM had 42 contributing nations in 2015, making it its peak. The US accounted for the largest contingent, while Italy, Germany, and
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served leading roles. Intended to play a temporary and transitionary role, the mission gradually withdrew its forces, which numbered around 10,000 at the start of 2021. On 14 April 2021 via a North Atlantic Council Ministerial Statement, NATO announced a drawdown of RSM troops by 1 May, and the mission was terminated early September 2021. The last RSM troop was a U.S. troop, which withdrawn on August 30, 2021.


Legal basis

The operation plan for the Resolute Support Mission (RSM) was approved by foreign ministers of the NATO members in late June 2014 and the corresponding status of forces agreement was signed by President of Afghanistan Ashraf Ghani and NATO Senior Civilian Representative in Afghanistan Maurits Jochems in Kabul on 30 September 2014. The
United Nations Security Council The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN) and is charged with ensuring international peace and security, recommending the admission of new UN members to the General Assembly, ...
unanimously adopted United Nations Security Council Resolution 2189 in support of the new international mission in Afghanistan.


Objectives and deployment

The objective of the mission was to provide training, advice and assistance for Afghan security forces and institutions in their conflict with extremist groups such as the Taliban, the Haqqani network, and ISIS-K. The Resolute Support Mission consisted of approximately 17,000 personnel from NATO and partner nations in Afghanistan. The leader of the operation was at all times identical with the commander of United States Forces - Afghanistan. Forces were distributed between the central hub at Kabul and Bagram Airfield and four supporting spokes. The spokes were formed by Train Advise Assist Commands (TAACs), which directly supported four of the six Afghan National Army Corps. Train Advise Assist Command - Capital replaced the former Regional Command Capital. TAAC East assisted the 201st Corps from FOB Gamberi in Laghman, TAAC South assists the
205th Corps The 205th 'Atul' (Hero) Corps was a corps-level formation of the Afghan National Army. Its headquarter were located in Kandahar and it was responsible for the south of the country (Kandahar, Zabul, Oruzgan, Helmand and Nimruz provinces), par ...
from Kandahar International Airport, TAAC West assisted the 207th Corps in Herat and TAAC North covered the 209th Corps from Mazar-i-Sharif. The 203rd Corps located in the south-eastern part of the country saw advisers from time to time from TAAC East (one source described this as "fly to advise"). The 215th Corps in the south-west is supported by TAAC South. U.S. President
Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Obama was the first Af ...
, in an update given from the
White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in ...
on 6 July 2016, stated that, following General John W. Nicholson's, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Joseph Dunford's, and U.S. Defense Department Secretary Ashton Carter's mutual recommendations, the U.S. would have about 8,400 troops remaining in Afghanistan through the end of his administration in December 2016. The residual force of 9,800 troops was withdrawn on 31 December 2016, leaving 8,400 troops stationed at four garrisons (Kabul, Kandahar, Bagram, and Jalalabad). The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) was appointed by the US Congress to oversee the $117.26 billion that Congress had provided to implement reconstruction programs in Afghanistan. The SIGAR's "April 30, 2018 Quarterly Report to Congress" says, " s of January 31, 2018,14.5% of the country’s total districts ereunder insurgent control or influence an additional 29.2% werecontested


Collapse and dissection

Intended to play a temporary and transitionary role, the mission gradually withdrew its forces, which numbered around 10,000 at the start of 2021. On 14 April 2021 via a North Atlantic Council Ministerial Statement, NATO announced a drawdown of RSM troops by 1 May, and the mission was terminated early September 2021. The US Forces Afghanistan Forward was the name given by
US Secretary of Defense The United States secretary of defense (SecDef) is the head of the United States Department of Defense, the executive department of the U.S. Armed Forces, and is a high ranking member of the federal cabinet. DoDD 5100.1: Enclosure 2: a The s ...
Lloyd Austin, and it continued to have a military presence in the country until all US forces were withdrawn by August 30, 2021. In November 2021 NATO published a factsheet on its ‘Afghanistan Lessons Learned Process’. Seven meetings of a committee of NATO civil servants were held and the result was termed a "comprehensive review". John Manza, the committee's chair and the contemporary Assistant Secretary General for Operations, presented a summary that was reviewed and discussed by the NAC Permanent Representatives and the NAC Foreign Ministers. NATO HQ felt it "should consider mechanisms to improve the timeliness and relevance of reporting from the field and for more interactive discussions in the Council." SIGAR reported to Congress with the title "Collapse of the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces: An Assessment of the Factors That Led to Its Demise" in May 2022. General David Petraeus, who had commanded for a time around 2010 the precursor ISAF mission to Afghanistan, described the end of the mission as "heart-breaking, tragic and disastrous" as he said "Afghanistan's gone back to the dark ages" in an interview on the release of the UK Parliament's
Foreign Affairs Committee Foreign Affairs Committee may refer to: * Canadian House of Commons Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development * Canadian Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs * European Parliament Committee on Foreign Affairs * F ...
report on the matter. The report said the fact that the then- Foreign Secretary
Dominic Raab Dominic Rennie Raab (; born 25 February 1974) is a British politician who has served as Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Secretary of State for Justice, and Lord Chancellor since October 2022, having previously served from 2021 t ...
, his Permanent Secretary
Philip Barton Sir Philip Robert Barton (born 18 August 1963) is a British diplomat, currently the Permanent Under-Secretary of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. He was previously British High Commissioner to India; he was High Commissioner ...
and Prime Minister
Boris Johnson Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (; born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, writer and journalist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as ...
were all on summertime leave when the Taliban took Afghanistan's capital, Kabul, "marks a fundamental lack of seriousness, grip or leadership at a time of ritishnational emergency", especially in light of the vacuum left by the flight of President Ashraf Ghani, his
cabinet Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to: Furniture * Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers * Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets * Filin ...
and vaporous government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. As of June 2022 the Afghanistan War Commission had yet to report.


Contributing nations

As of 2019, among the forces contributing to the mission are 8,475 Americans training and helping Afghan forces, approximately 5,500 Americans engaged in counter-terrorism missions, 8,673 allied soldiers and 27,000 military contractors. A new type of U.S. unit, the
Security Force Assistance Brigade A Security Force Assistance Brigade (SFAB) (pronounced ) is a specialized United States Army unit formed to conduct security force assistance (SFA) missions: to train, advise, assist, enable and accompany operations with allied and partner natio ...
s, began deploying to Afghanistan in February 2018 to support the mission. The United Kingdom announced in July 2018 that it was going to send 440 more British personnel to Afghanistan. Around half of the additional personnel were deployed in August 2018 and the other half followed by February 2019. This increased the total number of British personnel in the country from 650 to 1,090 by early 2019. The countries that had personnel in Afghanistan as of February 2021 (with complete statistics last published prior to withdrawal) are as follows. The mission was terminated on 12 July 2021, and several countries had personnel in place, before all were withdrawn before 31 August 2021.


List of commanders

The USFOR-A Commander reports to the Commander, United States Central Command (CENTCOM), who reports directly to the
Secretary of Defense A defence minister or minister of defence is a cabinet official position in charge of a ministry of defense, which regulates the armed forces in sovereign states. The role of a defence minister varies considerably from country to country; in so ...
. This reporting relationship is prescribed in 10 USC Section 164(d)(1). The Resolute Support Mission Commander (COMRS) does not have a direct reporting relationship with the Secretary of Defense. Rather, he reports through the Commander, U.S. CENTCOM. COMRS reports to the
NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two N ...
chain of command through the Commander of Joint Forces Command – Brunssum, who reports to the NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR).


See also

* Operation Freedom's Sentinel – American mission in Afghanistan (2015–2021) *
Operation Allies Refuge Operation Allies Refuge was a United States military operation to airlift certain at-risk Afghan civilians, particularly interpreters, U.S. embassy employees, and other prospective Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) applicants from Afghanistan during ...
– part of the evacuation from
Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is borde ...
(summer 2021)


References


External links

* {{War on Terrorism 01 NATO operations in Afghanistan Military units and formations of the War in Afghanistan (2001–2021) Military units and formations established in 2014 2014 establishments in Afghanistan Military operations of the War in Afghanistan (2001–2021) involving the United States Military operations of the War in Afghanistan (2001–2021) involving Australia Military operations of the War in Afghanistan (2001–2021) involving Germany Military operations involving Georgia (country) Non-combat military operations involving Australia Non-combat military operations involving Germany Foreign relations of Afghanistan Military operations involving Portugal