Resolute Support Mission

Resolute Support Mission
250px Official logo of RSM
Active	December 28, 2014 – Present
Country	Contributing States: See Below
Allegiance	North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Size	12,905 troops as of December, 2015
Part of	Allied Joint Force Command Brunssum American contingent responsible to: United States Central Command MacDill AFB, Florida, U.S.
Headquarters	Kabul, Afghanistan
Engagements	Global War on Terrorism War in Afghanistan (2001–2014) War in Afghanistan (2015–present)
Commanders
Commander	Gen. John W. Nicholson, Jr., USA
Deputy Commander	Lt. Gen. Tim Radford, UK
Senior Enlisted Leader	CSM Delbert Byers, USA
Insignia
Flag	180px

Change of Mission Ceremony from ISAF to Resolute Support, Dec. 28, 2014, in Kabul

Resolute Support or Operation Resolute Support is a NATO-led training, advisory, assistance, and counter-terror mission consisting of over 12,000 troops in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, which began on January 1, 2015. It is a follow-on mission to the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) which was completed on December 28, 2014. The mission's current commander is U.S. Army General John W. Nicholson, Jr. who replaced U.S. Army General John F. Campbell on 2 March 2016.

Legal basis

The operation plan for the Resolute Support Mission (RSM) was approved by foreign ministers of the NATO members in late June 2014 and the corresponding status of forces agreement was signed by President of Afghanistan Ashraf Ghani and NATO Senior Civilian Representative in Afghanistan Maurits Jochems in Kabul on 30 September 2014. The United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted United Nations Security Council Resolution 2189 in support of the new international mission in Afghanistan.

Objectives and deployment

The objective of the mission is to provide training, advice and assistance for the Afghan security forces and institutions as well as counter-terror and combat. The Resolute Support Mission envisages the deployment of approximately 12,000 personnel from NATO and partner nations in Afghanistan with the central hub at Kabul and Bagram Airfield supporting four spokes. The spokes will be formed by Train Advise Assist Commands (TAACs), which will directly support four of the six Afghan National Army Corps. Train Advise Assist Command - Capital replaces the former Regional Command Capital; the redesignation took place in August 2014. TAAC East will assist the 201st Corps from FOB Gamberi and FOB Fenty located near Jalalabad, TAAC South will assist the 205th Corps from Kandahar International Airport, TAAC West will assist the 207th Corps in Herat and TAAC North will cover the 209th Corps from Mazar-i-Sharif. TAAC North is under the command of Brig. Gen. Harald Gante, German Army. Regional Command North was redesignated as TAAC North on July 1, 2014.

The 203rd Corps located in the south-eastern part of the country will see advisers from time to time from TAAC East (one source describes this as "fly to advise"). The 215th Corps in the south-west will get a little attention from TAAC South. Several of the TAACs were established prior to the disestablishment of ISAF; they can be seen on the December 2014 ISAF status update sheet.

Contributing nations

As of May 2016, the following nations have personnel stationed in Afghanistan as part of the mission.

Country	Number of Troops
United States	6,954
Germany	980
Georgia	861
Italy	827
Romania	588
Turkey	520
United Kingdom	352
Czech Republic	214
Poland	198
Australia	174
Mongolia	120
Bulgaria	109
Azerbaijan	94
Denmark	90
Hungary	84
Netherlands	82
Croatia	81
Armenia	65
Bosnia-Herzegovina	55
Albania	43
Belgium	40
Slovakia	40
Macedonia	39
Norway	35
Finland	30
Sweden	23
Latvia	22
Montenegro	17
Lithuania	13
Portugal	10
Ukraine	10
Austria	9
New Zealand	8
Slovenia	7
Spain	7
Estonia	5
Greece	4
Iceland	2
Luxembourg	1
Total	12,813