On 12 December 2017,US Air Force Brigadier General Lance Bunch,Director of Future Operations CJ-35,Resolute Support Headquarters,Kabul,Afghanistan,addressed the media at the Pentagon via teleconference.He is in charge of synchronisation,contingency planning and air campaign integration for Resolute Support Mission and Operation Freedom's Sentinel.BRIG GEN Bunch said that:
As General Nicholson has said,we will be here until the job is done.Our future shop developed an air interdiction campaign,a counter-revenue campaign using air power.We have been able to target the Taliban in their safe zones,their command and control nodes,illicit revenue-generating ventures and their logistical network.This new air interdiction campaign directly strengthens the Afghan defence forces and their continued battlefield success.In the past three weeks,since the campaign began,we have been able to eliminate 25 narcotics processing labs from the Taliban inventory.This amounts to nearly 80 million dollars in drug money from the kingpins' pockets,while denying over 16 million in direct revenue to their Taliban partners.*
The US Marines have also been able to use their HiMARS rockets against such facilities.The Afghan National Interdiction Unit also conducted two simultaneous raids of Taliban narcotics bazaars as part of this campaign.This resulted in over 2,000 kg of heroin and 5,000 kg of opium getting confiscated.The Taliban narcotics leadership has been caught off guard,so we were able to target Mullah Shah Wali,the Taliban special forces branch,or Red Unit,commander of this Taliban squad in Helmand Province,delivering yet another blow to this criminal network.This was a joint effort by the Afghan National Defence and Security Forces,the US Army,Air Force,Navy and Marines,all collectively exercising authorities granted under the South Asia Policy-and it's not over;in fact,it's only just begun,and this will be a very long winter for the Taliban,as we will continue to disrupt their resources again,and again,and again-but a key part of these operations are a strong Afghan defence forces.Whereas before we could only embed at the Corps level,our new SAP will allow us to embed all the way down to the Kandak,or Battalion level.This allows us to train,advise and assist Afghan units and leaders directly controlling the fight,and accelerate their transition to increased ability and capacity.The US force uplift announced in the new SAP has already happened.This policy,coupled with our air campaign,will allow Afghan defence forces to keep pressure on the Taliban through the winter.*
In early 2018,the new Security Force Assistance Brigade will deploy into theatre and further enhance our assistance to the Afghan security forces going into the next fighting season.The Taliban have been unable to take a provincial capital or even a single city.This year,the Taliban have fared poorly.We,along with our Afghan partners,are on the path to victory.Now,with our new authorities,we're able to target networks,not just individual fighters.Our SFAB will deploy in the March of 2018 time frame.*
We're currently unfolding the air interdiction campaign.We continue to leverage our Intelligence,Surveillance and Reconnaissance across the theatre to find the enemy wherever they may be so that we can develop targets.There's been much said that as the war in Iraq and Syria starts to wind down,the main effort will shift to Afghanistan;and as those assets become available and come to us,we'll of course be able to leverage them to full effect.*
We're looking to triple the size of the Afghan Air Force by 2023.They did 500 more sorties in 2017 than 2016.This is a new war,and the gloves are off,if you will.We are able to go after the Taliban support structure,whereas before we could only strike in support of the Afghan forces that were in contact with the enemy.So now we're able to go after their weapons cache sites;their revenue generators;their C2 nodes-all the ones where they thought they were safe and they are no longer,so it has definitely been a game changer and the Taliban is definitely feeling it.I think what General Nicholson said is that the war is in a stalemate,but the momentum is definitely shifting to the ANDSF.*
The assets we've been using include the B-52 with its new conventional rotary launcher;the F-22;F-16;A-29;HiMARS;F/A-18;over the horizon air refueling assets;JSTARS and ISR assets.We used the fifth generation F-22 fighter jet to limit collateral damage in the Northern Helmand interdiction campaign.The most precise weapon at our disposal is the small diameter bomb carried by the F-22s.*
We're looking for opportunities to disrupt their ability to fund their operations,to recruit fighters or buy weapons.The Taliban gets 300-500 million a year as their total budget.Sixty percent comes from their narco-processing trade;the vast majority of that comes from Northern Helmand,which is their economic engine.The forces we have right now are enough to keep the ANDSF on the offensive through the winter.*
BRIG GEN Bunch said that,besides the Taliban,ISIL-Khorasan had up to 1,000 fighters in Afghanistan;but he didn't have the number of recent US air strikes on al-Qaida fighters on hand.US Forces Afghanistan does not currently have the authority to conduct airstrikes on Pakistan.Asked whether the uplift in US forces has resulted in the drawdown of the CIA's Ground Branch paramilitary operatives,who have been active in Afghanistan since right after 9-11,BRIG GEN Bunch said that was beyond his pay grade.
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