| National Military Academy of Afghanistan | |
|---|---|
| اکادمی ملی نظامی افغانستان | |
| Established | February 2005 |
| Type | Military Academy |
| President | Major General Mohammed Sharif Yaftali |
| Undergraduates | 1502 |
| Location | Kabul, Afghanistan |
| Colors | Purple - The Islamic Color for Education |
| Affiliations | United States Military Academy |
| Website | www.nmaa.edu.af |
The National Military Academy of Afghanistan (NMAA) (Persian:اکادمی ملی نظامی افغانستان) is an academic institution of the Afghan military that is located in Kabul, Afghanistan. It is a four-year military development institution dedicated to graduating officers for the Afghan National Army and the Afghan Air Force. The mission of the NMAA is to produce officers for the Afghan National Army that also have a four year college level bachelors degree. The academy is based upon the United States Military Academy at West Point.
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All cadets who successfully graduate from the academy will receive a bachelors degree. Currently, degrees are being offered in English Language, Civil Engineering, Computer Science, Management, and Law.
All cadets will be commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Afghan National Army in one of six basic branches: Infantry, Armor, Artillery, Combat Engineer, Logistics, or Communications.
All cadets study English for 4 years based on the American Language Course written by DLI ELC, at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas. Instruction also includes conversation classes, interactive multimedia instruction, and will eventually integrate basic literacy, academic, military, and technology skills.
Cadets are required to participate in morning physical fitness training and afternoon sports intramurals as part of their development in becoming an officer in the Afghan National Army
Traditionally, military leaders in Afghanistan have been loyal to either the national leader or more often, their local tribal leader. Their allegiances have been to their tribe, to their province, to the country, and their religion, in that order. The academy has undertaken the task of developing the cadet's loyalty to the constitution of Afghanistan, rather than any one individual. Another new philosophy is training the cadets to understand that there are circumstances when it is acceptable to disobey orders when that order is in conflict with the national constitution.
Cadets are bound to an honor code in which they pledge not to cheat, lie, steal or conspire to deceive.
The United States has taken the lead in providing advisors and funding to the academy through Combined Security Transition Command - Afghanistan (CSTC-A). The team consists of 6 to 20 members at any given time with the responsibility of mentoring academy leadership, staff sections, academic departments and sports teams.
Turkey also provides a team of academic mentors to the academy and has assisted in establishing a Turkish Language program, computer science department and mathematics department. They have also provided funding for the establishment of some recreational facilities.
France and Germany have also provided some assistance in developing respective language courses at the academy.
Unlike most embedded training teams, the coalition teams present at the academy frequently have female officers and NCOs in order to demonstrate the capabilities of women in the army.
The academy currently has about 40 female students enrolled in medical studies. This co-ed major enables females to study on campus, although they are housed in dormitories at a non-military university in the area. The academy anticipates having 10% female population enrolled as cadets by 2017.
Afghan military leaders conducted an international study in which they visited Kara Harp Okulu — the Turkish Military Academy, Royal Military Academy Sandhurst — the service academy of the United Kingdom, and the United States Military Academy at West Point.
The Afghans selected West Point to be the model for their academy. A formal agreement between the two academies was established and West Point has been sending visiting professors to Afghanistan to provide mentorship to academy professors.
Recently, the United States Air Force Academy has also begun to provide mentors for their developing Air Corps program that will be a branch of the Afghan Air Force.
The current site of the academy is at the previous Air Academy that was established by the Soviet Union when they occupied Afghanistan through the 1980s. The site was nearly destroyed during the years of civil war and the coalition invasion of October 2001.
The United States and Turkey has taken the lead in reconstructing the current site while planning and developing the future site of the academy in the Qargheh section of Kabul. The current estimated cost of the reconstruction is around $100 million.
Currently cadets at West Point are assisting in the creation of a distributed application for the purpose of managing grades for the Afghan cadets.
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