DefenceTalkThe Obama administration is abandoning plans to cut the number of U.S. forces in Afghanistan to 5,500 by year’s end, amid requests from military leaders to keep more troops there, U.S. officials said Monday. Although no final decision on numbers has been made, U.S. officials say, most of the nearly 10,000 U.S. troops currently in […]https://www.defencetalk.com/us-to-scrap-afghanistan-drawdown-plan-63547/

DefenceTalkMore than three decades of war have damaged Afghanistan’s once-thriving carpet industry, but weavers are tapping into the bloody past to boost their fortunes with “war rugs” depicting guns, tanks and warplanes. On Chicken Street, the most famous street in Afghanistan during the “hippie trail” tourist days of the late 60s and 70s and still […]https://www.defencetalk.com/from-ak47s-to-drones-afghans-war-rugs-reflect-bloody-decades-63399/

DefenceTalkLeaders from the 201st and 203rd Afghan National Army Corps, Afghan Border Police zones 301 and 402, the 11th Pakistan Army Corps, and a delegation from Resolute Support headquarters discussed border security at an event hosted by Train, Advise, Assist Command – East, or TAAC-E, at Operational Base Fenty in Afghanistan, Jan. 18, 2015. For […]https://www.defencetalk.com/afghan-pakistani-military-leaders-coordinate-border-security-62186/

DefenceTalkThe Taliban insurgency may still be raging but the poor state of the economy could pose a bigger threat to Afghanistan’s long-term viability, and huge mineral reserves are unlikely to offer a quick fix. In Kabul’s Sarayee Shahzada market, moneychangers wave thick bundles of Afghanis, dollars, rupees and dirhams, but the customers are not packing […]https://www.defencetalk.com/afghanistan-faces-economic-timebomb-as-nato-war-ends-61234/

DefenceTalkAustralia’s Heron Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) detachment in Afghanistan flew its final mission for Operation SLIPPER from Kandahar Air Field on 30 November 2014. Heron aircraft have completed more than 27,000 mission hours during Operation SLIPPER providing high resolution intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance support to Australian forces and our International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) partners […]https://www.defencetalk.com/australias-heron-mission-ends-in-afghanistan-61108/

DefenceTalkA pair of frontrunners have emerged to take charge at the Pentagon after President Barack Obama announced the departure of Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel. If former under-secretary Michele Flournoy gets the nod, she would be the first woman to hold the role, and neither she nor former deputy secretary Ashton Carter have served in uniform. […]https://www.defencetalk.com/frontrunners-emerge-for-top-pentagon-job-61073/

DefenceTalkPakistan’s army chief is holding talks with top US generals and officials this week in the first visit to the United States by the country’s powerful military commander in four years, officials said Monday. General Raheel Sharif’s trip comes against the backdrop of improved relations between the two governments with Washington encouraged by Pakistan’s offensive […]https://www.defencetalk.com/pakistani-army-chief-in-first-us-visit-61032/

DefenceTalkBritish forces Sunday handed over formal control of their last base in Afghanistan to Afghan troops, ending combat operations in the country after 13 years which cost hundreds of lives. The handover was hailed by British Prime Minister David Cameron but the southern Helmand province that foreign troops are leaving behind still confronts a resilient […]https://www.defencetalk.com/british-forces-hand-over-control-of-last-base-in-afghanistan-60880/

DefenceTalkPakistan’s military Tuesday said it had killed 28 militants in air strikes in the restive tribal region near the Afghan border, a region where it has been battling Islamist groups for more than a decade. The strikes, that also killed a number of foreign fighters, took place on Tuesday in Dattakhel area of North Waziristan […]https://www.defencetalk.com/pakistan-air-strikes-kill-28-militants-60801/

DefenceTalkBritain will shortly begin re-deploying its unmanned armed drones from Afghanistan to counter Islamic State jihadists in Iraq, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond told parliament on Thursday. The remotely-piloted Reaper aircraft will provide surveillance, reconnaissance and intelligence support to the Iraqi troops and international coalition forces taking on the IS group in northern Iraq. The drones […]https://www.defencetalk.com/britain-to-re-deploy-drones-from-afghanistan-to-iraq-60775/