Complete Guide To Operation Anaconda In The Afghanistan War

Author : U. S. Military
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781731560766
Total Pages : 216 pages
Book Rating : 4.61/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Complete Guide to Operation Anaconda in the Afghanistan War written by U. S. Military and published by . This book was released on 2018-11-19 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Four important reports about Operation Anaconda during the Afghanistan War are reproduced: Criticisms Associated With Operation Anaconda - Can Long Distance Leadership Be Effective? * Operation Anaconda: Lessons for Joint Operations * Operation Anaconda: Lessons Learned, or Lessons Observed? * An Air Power PerspectiveOne of the most crucial joint combat operations in Afghanistan was Operation ANACONDA, designed and executed to remove the last remaining organized Taliban resistance. Operation ANACONDA generated lessons involving many aspects of the art of joint warfare.From 2-16 March 2002, a Combined Joint Task Force (CJTF), built around 1,411 U.S. Army soldiers, and Special Operations Forces (SOF) from the United States and six other nations took on the task of clearing the Shahi Kot valley in eastern Afghanistan of al-Qaeda and Taliban forces who had survived earlier battles. It was a complex, non-linear battle that demanded full integration of Joint forces-and, to the frustration of all, revealed some Joint warfighting stress points.For the first time in Operation ENDURING FREEDOM, American forces were locked in a prolonged ground battle in difficult terrain. Eight Americans (5 U.S. Army, 2 USAF and 1 U.S. Navy SEAL) died during Operation ANACONDA and 80 were wounded. Seven of those deaths came on 4 March 2002 at the ridgeline at Takur Gar during a helicopter insertion of a Special Forces team and an attempt to rescue them.Operation ANACONDA also turned out to be an acid test of land and air component cooperation in a pitched fight. The al-Qaeda and Taliban forces holed up in prepared defensive positions in the 10,000-foot mountains and rained mortars and small arms fire down on the Soldiers, Sailors, and Airmen holding blocking positions below. Over the next two weeks, bombers, fighters, helicopters and AC-130 gunships delivered close air support (CAS) into the postage-stamp size battle area measuring about 8 nautical miles (nm) x 8 nm. Deconfliction and coordination of this "fire support" proved challenging with friendly troops and controllers in a small area. In the air, funneling the strikes in was just as intense, and strike aircraft reported several near misses as one pulled up from an attack run while another rolled onto the target. After initial contact sparked heavy fighting, air controllers attached to ground forces or airborne in OA-10 Thunderbolts called in airpower to provide immediate close air support.Ultimately, Operation ANACONDA was a success. "Operation ANACONDA sought to clear the enemy in that valley area and in those hills," said General Tommy R. Franks, U.S. Army, Commander, U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM), "and succeeded in doing so where many operations in history had not been able to get that done." However, it was also an object lesson in the complexities of planning and executing rapid air support for ground operations in a hostile, rugged environment. The report that follows seeks to document air and ground operations during the battle in a case-study format. It offers new statistical analysis from a joint database of the immediate close air support delivered during the battle.

Author : Lester W. Grau
Publisher : University Press of Kansas
ISBN 13 : 0700618015
Total Pages : 480 pages
Book Rating : 4.19/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Operation Anaconda written by Lester W. Grau and published by University Press of Kansas. This book was released on 2011-11-25 with total page 480 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Long before it became "Obama's War," the long-running conflict in Afghanistan was launched by President George W. Bush in retaliation for the 9/11 attacks on the United States. Only a few months later, Operation Anaconda sent American-led coalition forces into their most intensely brutal confrontation with Al Qaeda and their Taliban hosts in the Shar-i Kot Valley near the Pakistan border. The result was an unexpected set piece of conventional fighting in what has become an era of guerrilla warfare. Drawing upon previously unavailable or neglected sources, Lester Grau and Dodge Billingsley give us the most complete and accurate account of this thirteen-day firefight waged in mountainous terrain nearly two miles above sea level. They describe how allied troops fought a fierce and well-entrenched enemy to a standstill, close to an old Soviet battlefield, and then drove them completely out of Afghanistan. Grau and Billingsley's account also highlights problems encountered in Anaconda and the lessons we should learn from their in-depth study. The Army and Air Force operated under conflicting views regarding the appropriate application of Close Air Support, and airpower both crippled and aided the overall effort. In addition, severe shortages of transport, attack helicopters, and artillery hampered the effort, while the acquisition and timely sharing of intelligence barely occurred at all and coalition relations frayed under the intense pressures of combat. As an added bonus, the authors also include with the book a documentary on DVD that features interviews with soldiers who fought in Anaconda, provides additional information concerning major phases of the battle, and presents insightful commentary by Grau and by Billingsley, who was on the ground with U.S. forces for the operation. Providing the richest description and critique of all the forces involved-including those that fought on the enemy side-the combined book-and-DVD surpasses all previous accounts of this landmark engagement and is an essential volume in the literature on our war in Afghanistan.

Author : Sean Naylor
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 9780425196090
Total Pages : 476 pages
Book Rating : 4.97/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Not a Good Day to Die written by Sean Naylor and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2005 with total page 476 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An award-winning journalist provides an eyewitness account of the brutal March 2002 battle of untested U.S. troops against fanatical Al Qaeda and Taliban forces in Afghanistan's Shahikot valley, capturing the courage and resourcefulness of these young soldiers against overwhelming odds, including high-level strategic miscalculations.

Author : Sean Naylor
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.82/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Not a Good Day to Die written by Sean Naylor and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This transcript is from a presentation by Sean Naylor about Operation Anaconda, which he covered as a reporter for the Army Times, and about which he co-authored a book by the same title as this transcript. The presentation provides an overview and background details of the operation and touches on it's historic significance as America's first major combat operation of the 21st century.

Author : U. S. Military
Publisher : Independently Published
ISBN 13 : 9781731463432
Total Pages : 98 pages
Book Rating : 4.3X/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Operation Anaconda written by U. S. Military and published by Independently Published. This book was released on 2018-11-17 with total page 98 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Operation Anaconda, conducted in the Shahikot Valley of Afghanistan during early March 2002, was a complex battle fought in rugged mountainous terrain under difficult conditions. The battle ended as an American victory at the cost of eight U.S. military personnel killed and more than 50 wounded. But the difficult early stages of the battle provide insights for thinking about how to organize, train, and equip U.S. forces for future joint expeditionary operations and how to pursue transformation. Intricate and exact details of the battle are hard to determine, as often is the case when participants have differing memories and insights. Post-facto observers derive differing interpretations from the same information, while newspaper accounts sometimes report wrong information about the particulars. Because "truth" is a function of one's angle of vision, this battle will be debated for a long time, and interpretations of its lessons will remain controversial.Anaconda did not conform to theories of information-age battles. It was conducted at a time when U.S. military operations in Afghanistan were undergoing a transition. Earlier, the U.S. ground presence had been limited largely to special operations forces, which worked with friendly Afghan units and helped spot ground targets for U.S. air strikes. By contrast, Operation Anaconda marked the initial use of U.S. Army battalions performing ground maneuvers against enemy forces that required significant air strikes in supporting ways. At the time, the U.S. joint military presence and infrastructure in Afghanistan were not fully mature for these new operations. This situation, coupled with the congested and difficult terrain of the Shahikot Valley, played a major contributing role in the problems experienced during Anaconda's initial days.Executive Summary * The Lessons of Operation Anaconda for Joint Operations * Setting the Stage: Why Anaconda Encountered Problems in the First Few Days * Lesson 1: Unity of Command and Joint Planning * Lesson 2: Intelligence Estimates and Battle Plans * Lesson 3: Integrating Air-Ground Operations * Lesson 4: Mission Orders and Rules of Engagement * Lesson 5: Training for Surprises * Lesson 6: Joint Operations at All Levels

Author : Richard Kugler
Publisher : CreateSpace
ISBN 13 : 9781478198482
Total Pages : 74 pages
Book Rating : 4.86/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Operation Anaconda: Lessons for Joint Operations written by Richard Kugler and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2012-07-06 with total page 74 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Operation Anaconda, conducted in the Shahikot Valley of Afghanistan during early March 2002, was a complex battle fought in rugged mountainous terrain under difficult conditions. The battle ended as an American victory at the cost of eight U.S. military personnel killed and more than 50 wounded. But the difficult early stages of the battle provide insights for thinking about how to organize, train, and equip U.S. forces for future joint expeditionary operations and how to pursue transformation.

Author :
Publisher : DIANE Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1428910808
Total Pages : 68 pages
Book Rating : 4.05/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Afghanistan and the Future of Warfare: Implications for Army and Defense Policy written by and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 2002 with total page 68 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The defense debate tends to treat Afghanistan as either a revolution or a fluke: either the "Afghan Model" of special operations forces (SOF) plus precision munitions plus an indigenous ally is a widely applicable template for American defense planning, or it is a nonreplicable product of local idiosyncrasies. In fact, it is neither. The Afghan campaign of last fall and winter was actually much closer to a typical 20th century mid-intensity conflict, albeit one with unusually heavy fire support for one side. And this view has very different implications than either proponents or skeptics of the Afghan Model now claim. Afghan Model skeptics often point to Afghanistan's unusual culture of defection or the Taliban's poor skill or motivation as grounds for doubting the war's relevance to the future. Afghanistan's culture is certainly unusual, and there were many defections. The great bulk, however, occurred after the military tide had turned not before-hand. They were effects, not causes. The Afghan Taliban were surely unskilled and ill-motivated. The non-Afghan al Qaeda, however, have proven resolute and capable fighters. Their host's collapse was not attributable to any al Qaeda shortage of commitment or training. Afghan Model proponents, by contrast, credit precision weapons with annihilating enemies at a distance before they could close with our commandos or indigenous allies. Hence the model's broad utility: with SOF-directed bombs doing the real killing, even ragtag local militias will suffice as allies. All they need do is screen U.S. commandos from the occasional hostile survivor and occupy the abandoned ground thereafter. Yet the actual fighting in Afghanistan involved substantial close combat. Al Qaeda counterattackers closed, unseen, to pointblank range of friendly forces in battles at Highway 4 and Sayed Slim Kalay.

Author : Malcolm MacPherson
Publisher : Delacorte Press
ISBN 13 : 0440335604
Total Pages : 354 pages
Book Rating : 4.03/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Roberts Ridge written by Malcolm MacPherson and published by Delacorte Press. This book was released on 2005-08-30 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Afghanistan, March 2002. In the early morning darkness on a frigid mountaintop, a U.S. soldier is stranded, alone, surrounded by fanatical al Qaeda fighters. For the man’s fellow Navy SEALs, and for waiting teams of Army Rangers, there was only one rule now: leave no one behind. In this gripping you-are-there account–based on stunning eyewitness testimony and painstaking research–journalist Malcolm MacPherson thrusts us into a drama of rescue, tragedy, and valor in a place that would be known as... ROBERTS RIDGE For an elite team of SEALs, the mission seemed straightforward enough: take control of a towering 10,240-foot mountain peak called Takur Ghar. Launched as part of Operation Anaconda–a hammer-and-anvil plan to smash Taliban al Qaeda in eastern Afghanistan –the taking of Takur Ghar would offer U.S. forces a key strategic observation post. But the enemy was waiting, hidden in a series of camouflaged trenches and bunkers–and when the Special Forces chopper flared on the peak to land, it was shredded by a hail of machine-gun, small arms, and RPG rounds. A red-haired SEAL named Neil Roberts was thrown from the aircraft. And by the time the shattered helicopter crash-landed on the valley floor seven miles away, Roberts’s fellow SEALs were determined to return to the mountain peak and bring him out–no matter what the cost. Drawing on the words of the men who were there–SEALs, Rangers, medics, combat air controllers, and pilots–this harrowing true account, the first book of its kind to chronicle the battle for Takur Ghar, captures in dramatic detail a seventeen-hour pitched battle fought at the highest elevation Americans have ever waged war. At once an hour-by-hour, bullet-by-bullet chronicle of a landmark battle and a sobering look at the capabilities and limitations of America’s high-tech army, Roberts Ridge is the unforgettable story of a few dozen warriors who faced a single fate: to live or die for their comrades in the face of near-impossible odds.

Author : Philip Smucker
Publisher : Potomac Books, Inc.
ISBN 13 : 1612342515
Total Pages : 308 pages
Book Rating : 4.11/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Al Qaeda's Great Escape written by Philip Smucker and published by Potomac Books, Inc.. This book was released on 2014-05-14 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How bin Laden and his gang slipped through the noose during fierce Afghan battles

Author : Charles H. Briscoe
Publisher : www.Militarybookshop.CompanyUK
ISBN 13 : 9781907521874
Total Pages : 438 pages
Book Rating : 4.79/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Weapon of Choice written by Charles H. Briscoe and published by www.Militarybookshop.CompanyUK. This book was released on 2010-01 with total page 438 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in 2003, this is the first unclassified official history authored by the U.S. Army Special Operations Command relating to Operation Enduring Freedom. Contains extensive maps and illustrations. Previously difficult to obtain, this extensive study shows what Army Special Operations Forces (ARSOF) accomplished to drive the Taliban from power and to destroy al-Quaeda and Taliban strongholds as part of the global war on terrorism during Operation Enduring Freedom.