NATO’s Joint Warfare Centre (JWC) conducted its seventh and final Individual Augmentee Pre-Deployment Training (IAPDT) 14/01 at its training facility in Jåttå from 12 to 18 March 2014.

The training event was adapted accordingly to the evolved ISAF mission, which will continue training, advising and assisting the Afghan National Security Forces after 2014. Dubbed “Resolute Support”, NATO’s post-2014 mission will be one of support, not combat.

In support of NATO’s progress towards this goal, IAPDT 14/01 trained a total of 55 Individual Augmentees (IAs) from 10 NATO Member Nations and one Partner Nation. The IAs will start filling key staff and command positions in Headquarters International Security Assistance Force (HQ ISAF), ISAF Joint Command (HQ IJC) and NATO Special Operations Component Command Afghanistan (NSOCC-A) within the next four months.

Twenty Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) from theatre and recently redeployed from the two theatre headquarters also participated in the training event.

Previous JWC-led IAPDTs were biannual NATO sponsored pre-deployment training events designed for personnel bound for Afghanistan who were unable to attend the pre-deployment Mission Rehearsal Training Events.

JWC conducted the pilot IAPDT in 2010 for a total of 36 participants at its interim training facility in Ulsnes. Since then, the Centre has trained and mentored nearly 600 Individual Augmentees on NATO’s Afghanistan mission.

Built upon actual in-country experience and principles of counterinsurgency (COIN) and Security Force Assistance (SFA),each IAPDT programme reinforced teambuilding between participants and included comprehensive Mission Specific Training, Electronic Working Practices, Functional Area and Media Training, plus briefings on the fundamentals of SFA and vignette based cross functional training and various syndicate works.