Prince Harry due in US for military training

Prince Harry

 ...the majority of troops who pass the training go on to be deployed to places like Afghanistan, where they will work alongside U.S. troops and coalition forces.


 Prince Harry will arrive in the United States next week to begin a two-month military helicopter training course to prepare him for combat.

The prince, who is a British Army captain, will start at the Naval Air Facility at El Centro where he will fly Apache helicopters in the remote California desert near the Mexican border. The facility hosts allied troops throughout the year because its hot, dusty conditions replicate Afghanistan's harsh environment and the clear weather allows for constant flying.

"He will be Capt. Wales when he is here," said Capt. Devon Jones, the U.S. commanding officer at the facility. "He will be treated like any other British pilot."

The prince will be among 20 students in the British Army participating in the training that ends at an Air Force station in Gila Bend, Ariz., where they will fire missiles, rockets and cannons from the Apache helicopters.

CBS news


Here is a video explaining why pilots train in the US before deploying to Afghanistan:

India - Pakistan's Nemesis - Signed Defense Pact With Afghanistan

Afghanistan and Indian Leaders 

After years in which Karzai kept India at arm's length on security issues in Afghanistan, his willingness to seek military training "is a joint message he and the Americans are sending to Pakistan that, if you don't come on board and stop supporting these guerrillas, we have an option to strengthen ties with India," Amin Saikal, an Afghan political scientist at Australian National University, said yesterday in a phone interview.

India To Boost Afghanistan Ties, Irks Pakistan

Afghan President Hamid Karzai began a two-day visit to India on Tuesday that could boost the two countries' economic ties and lead to an agreement for India to train police, in a trip likely to irk Pakistan as tension grows in the region.

India is one of Afghanistan's biggest bilateral donors, having pledged about $2 billion since the 2001 U.S. led-invasion, for projects from the construction of highways to the building of the Afghan parliament.

Indian Foreign Minister S.M Krishna said on Tuesday a strategic partnership agreement would be signed, a formal tightening of links that could spark concerns in Pakistan that India is increasingly competing for influence in Afghanistan.

The agreement would be one of several being negotiated by Kabul, including one with the United States, that are part of an Afghan bid for greater security as NATO troops head home.

Israel is (indirectly) Training Afghanistan Police in Counter-Terror

India, whose military was trained in counter-terror by Israel, will train Afghani Police.


The Indian government hopes to reach agreement with Hamid Karzai, Afhan president, on the new security training programme during his two-day visit to the Indian capital which begins on Tuesday, according to a person familiar with the offer. If Mr Karzai accepts, specialist training of high-ranking Afghan police officers in India could begin before the end of the year, according to people close to the talks.

$19 billion later...

The Pentagon realized that the best bomb detector it has in its arsenal is a dog. Dogs increase the chances of early detection of IEDs in the Iraq and Afghanistan and help save soldiers lives and limbs, but new technology developed by Michigan State University uses lasers to send out a series of short and long pulses to identify individual vibrations unique like our "fingerprints" to a particular molecule helping identify biological and chemical agents used in improvised and conventional explosives used against our troops in the sandbox.