Operation Enduring Freedom - Afghanistan
US Forces Order of Battle
01 June 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 Iraqi Freedom, there are about 8,500 military personnel in the CENTCOM area of responsibility.

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 6,000 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

The unit rotations out of Afghanistan have been delayed for some time by stop movement orders. It is currently thought that units may begin rotating in and out of the region sometime in July or August.

• The 104th Fighter Squadron had replaced the 354th Fighter Squadron in January 2003. [This information is now reflected in the previous orbats]
• The 104th Fighter Squadron was replaced by the 81st Fighter Squadron on or about the beginnning of June. Eight A-10s and 150 airmen were deployed according to a story by the Air Force Print News on June 11.
• The 264th Logistics Task Force has been identified as has the 527th Engineer Battalion. Both are located at Bagram.