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Young engineering students of the Afghan National
Army get to grips with their heaviest machinery
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at Camp Shorabak in Helmand.
"Right now we're training the Afghan Army
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on horizontal construction and heavy-wheeled
vehicles, tractor trailers, dump-trucks, bulldozers."
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"As the international forces withdraw from
Afghanistan, vehicles like the ones you see
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behind me are going to be vital to the Afghan
National Army, who are now going to have to
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build their own roads, bases and firing platforms
without foreign help."
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'They don't have any more HESCO barriers to
build bases, they're going to have to use
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the bulldozers and the loaders to berm up
future bases to go after the Taliban, they're
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going to have to have their own heavy equipment
to build their own fighting positions for
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security purposes. They need the heavy equipment,
the recovery, the semis, obviously, to transport
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the heavy equipment. So it's an important
skill to have.
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'We are building a stronghold to defend ourselves
in case the enemy attacks. '

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'The equipment that the Afghans are using
right now is top notch, the D7 Bulldozer,
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Volvo loaders is the best equipment out there.'
'Whilst the skills attained by the young engineering
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recruits here at Camp Shorabak will be vital
for supporting the Afghan Army in their future
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missions, recruits are also able to take their
newfound abilities back into civilian life.
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'My best moment from working with the Afghans
and the students is I had a student that lived
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up in Bamiyan Province in the mountains, had
never much seen a car much less driven a truck
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and I was teaching him on a tractor/trailer,
the PMCS checks and how to drive and he got
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a call that his father was ill and he had
to fly home on an emergency.
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Their village had an old broken down Toyota,
that he was actually able to put air in the
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tyres, check the oil, get running and he was
able to drive his father to hospital to save
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his life and he came back almost in tears,
thanking me for what I was able to teach him.
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That was one of the more touching moments
that I've ever had.'

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While the majority of training is currently
provided by the international community through
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a foreign company, there are plans in place
to transfer the training programme to the
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Afghan army.
'The long term plan is to instruct them to
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be the future teachers and leaders of Afghanistan,
to keep the sustainability of the country
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and the Afghan people, to keep this going.'
"This is Laurence Cameron reporting for the
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NATOChannel."