Operation Enduring Freedom - Afghanistan
US Forces Order of Battle
01 January 2003

This is a "best available" order-of-battle of forces deployed in CENTCOM's part of Central and Southwest Asia, as well as EUCOM forces in Turkey participating in Operation Northern Watch. The amount of publicly available information concerning aircraft types and specific units has diminished to the point that it is no longer possible to provide a high fidelity profile of current deployments. There are evidently significant gaps in unit identifications, as well as non-trivial uncertainties as to numbers of specific types of aircraft. The presence of significant numbers of civilian contractor personnel at various facilities in the region further complicates accounting for total personnel numbers. Excluding forces deployed in direct support of Operations Southern Watch and Northern Watch, there are probably about 9,000 military personnel in the CENTCOM area of responsibility, including about 400 aircraft of all types. The number of troops deployed in the area fluctuates on a daily basis, and has averaged between 9,000 and 12,000 since September 11, 2001, with typically about 200 aircraft in the region. Forces in the region include a mix of special operations forces deployed in support of US Central Command operations. To enhance force protection throughout the region, additional military security personnel are also deployed.

Ground forces include a brigade-sized unit located throughout Afghanistan. Rotations occur every 6 months and take over a month to complete. A name for the rotation has yet to be identified. It is believed that the total Army presence in the region is nearly 5,000 soldiers.

The US Air Force's Expeditionary Air and Space Force (EAF) concept and organization sets a guideline for Air Force deployments to operational locations. The EAF is comprised of 10 Aerospace Expeditionary Forces (AEF) each with lead combat and support wings including on-call wings that could be deployed if required. Deployments for active duty units lasts roughly 90-days while Reserve and Guard units deploy typically for 30 - 60 days. Generally one AEF is assigned to Operation Southern Watch and one is assigned to Northern Watch. These aircraft do at times patrol the skies of Afghanistan. AEF 7 and AEF 8 units deployed beginning in late November and will remain until the end of February 2003.

Recent Developments

Roughly 600 Marines from the 2nd Force Service Support Group departed Camp Lejeune on December 30, 2002 and were believed to be heading for Afghanistan.