SIGNIFICANT ACTIVITIES REPORT-ODC ARMENIA-October 2007

UNCLAS YEREVAN 001333 SIPDIS SIPDIS SECSTATE FOR PM AND ISP E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: MCAP KCFE XG AM SUBJECT: SIGNIFICANT ACTIVITIES REPORT-ODC ARMENIA-October 2007 ¶1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Letter of Request totaling $6.8M of FMF for Peacekeeping equipment and radios requested for Armenian Peacekeeping Brigade; Review of Armenian National Military Doctrine conducted; DASD Cagan visit; Letter of Agreement for Excess Defense Articles (EDA) still awaits State Department (PM Bureau) approval. ¶2. SIGNIFICANT EVENTS ¶A. The ARM MOD submitted a Letter of Request (LOR) on 10 Oct for $6.8M of peacekeeping equipment and communications equipment for their new 2nd Peacekeeping Battalion and new Peacekeeping Brigade staff. The development of these units directly supports the EUCOM Country Campaign Plan: Objective 2, and the NATO IPAP with Armenian: Objective 2.3.2; Establish a Peacekeeping Brigade. Having completed most of the equipping of the 12th Peacekeeping Battalion (12th PK Bn; soon to be re-designated the 1st Peacekeeping Battalion) with FY06 FMF, the ARM MOD is now focusing its FMF program on the development of the new Armenian Peacekeeping Brigade (PK BDE). This new LOR reflects the ARM MOD view that the 12th PK BN is near completion (IPAP goal 2.3.1) and more significantly is the first time since 2003 that Armenia has expended all of its FMF in a single FY. The new LOR will expend all FY06-07 FMF and potentially eat into some of the FY08 funds. This is a positive turn-around from FY04-06 when the U.S. and ARM could not agree on how to obligate FMF in support of ARM military development. The 2nd PK Bn and PK BDE staff will be manned beginning in the spring of 2008. The new LOR is the second amendment to the existing FMF case: AM-B-BAA: Peacekeeping equipment, and USASAC will more than likely break the radios out of the LOR making them Amendment 1 to AM-B-UAB: Peacekeeping Forces radios. ¶B. Armenian NMD Reviewed. After having provided the English translation for the Armenian National Military Doctrine (NMD) to the ODC in early October, experts from the Center for Civil-Military Relations (CCMR),conducted a detailed review of the NMD and provided numerous recommendations for improving the existing document. This Warsaw Initiative Fund (WIF)-funded event directly supports the Armenian IPAP goal 2.2.2. Action 2: Develop a Defense Concept, and is one of eight total Defense Institution Building (DIB) events developed by the ODC to assist with DIB in Armenia. The draft NMD document currently lacks clear guidance or vision regarding the overall plan for Armenian reform and policies for the future. The English translation was in great need of improvement. The NMD was also viewed to have too many political statements for a document that is supposed to be providing military doctrinal guidance. U.S. recommendations provided input to improve these shortcomings. The MOD stated that U.S. input will spark new discussions about the document within the NMD development committee, and that the MOD may adopt some of the US recommendations when the document goes final by mid-Nov 07. U.S. critiques were almost identical to NATO critiques of the document, but it is ultimately up to the ARM MOD to implement any foreign recommendations regarding their NMD. ¶C. DASD Debra Cagan visited Armenia on 10-11 Oct. She conducted meetings with the Armenian Chief of Defense: Gen-Col Seyran Ohanyan; Minister of Defense: Michael Harutyunyan; Head of the Parliamentary Defense Committee: Artur Aghebekyan; and the Prime Minister: Serzh Sargsian. For more detailed information on this visit see: Yerevan 1951, 170618Z OCT 2007 ¶D. LOR for EDA FMF case. The LOR for the USASAC EDA equipment FMF case is still at DoS in Wash DC for review. The US Embassy Political/ Economics Chief and Deputy Chief of Mission have both requested that DoS expedite the approval for these cases, if at all possible, due to the urgent need to provide EDA vehicles to the Armenian EMEDS unit. Delivery of vehicles will directly support planned US training and familiarization events that were originally scheduled to start in Dec 08. U.S. provided EMEDS events will culminate with FMF funded mobile training teams (MTT) in Mar and Apr ¶08. Preparing for these events with EDA trucks is critical to success of the MTTs and to completing the training and equipping of the ARM EMEDS unit by Summer 08 in order to declare the unit deployable and NATO interoperable. ¶E. STATUS OF FOREIGN MILITARY FINANCING (FMF): ¶1. US Embassy is working with DoS in an attempt to expedite the LOA for the personal equipment excess defense article FMF case: AM-R-FFF, sent out on 2 Feb 07. This case will complement the existing peacekeeping equipment cases and allow for limited sustainment of the PK forces with uniforms and field equipment drawn from US military excess stocks. The case can also be expanded in the future to acquire office equipment bedding and other excess equipment processed through the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Office (DRMO) system, which is a different source from USASAC EDA where trucks will be acquired through a different FMF case. ¶2. Additional equipment ordered for the 12th Peacekeeping Battalion in the FMF AM-B-BAA, A1 case requested in Sep 06 continues to arrive. Currently ODC awaits arrival of the last major end-items from that case: EOD de-mining protective suits. ¶3. Equipment from AM-B-UBC: NBC Equipment also continues to arrive, with a number of spare parts arriving prior to their end items. ODC will continue to track and work with USASAC. ¶F. Joint Contact Team Program (JCTP). No JCTP events were conducted in October. One JCTP event is scheduled for 26-30 Nov 07, "NCO Program Implementation" which will address the officer duties and responsibilities that should be passed to the NCOs of the Armenian 12th Peacekeeping Battalion. This event may further provide enough detailed information about the respective NCO duties and responsibilities to provide significant guidance to the Armenian MOD and allow for them to re-write their job description booklets for specific NCO positions in the 12th Bn. ¶G. State Partnership Program (SPP). One SPP event was conducted in October. The event titled "Disaster Relief for EMEDS" was conducted 13-23 Oct in Wichita, KS. This event saw two officers from the Armenian Rescue Service and two from the Ministry of Defense observe a disaster coordination exercise involving the Expeditionary Medical Support (EMEDS)field hospital. This exercise was developed around lessons learned by the Kansas National Guard after Hurricane Katrina. The event focused on the coordination of rescue workers with military personnel manning the EMEDS. It also included professionals from fire service, law enforcement, hospitals and healthcare, emergency medical services, public health and emergency management, along with representatives from federal and state agencies. It is one in a series of EMEDS events focused on the coordination of civilian and military personnel during disaster operations. ¶H. Humanitarian Assistance (HA). ¶1. The ODC will conduct a project initiation meeting for the HA water project event as soon as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers representative in Tbilisi receives the HA funding from EUCOM and is available to make the trip to Yerevan. The stand-alone HA event will reconstruct existing water wells in three rural villages in Armenia where the current water system has deteriorated to a degree that potable water is seldom available. ¶2. The ODC submitted two Excess Property requests that are awaiting funding from EUCOM-J4-ID-HA. One request is to supply furniture and school equipment to two affiliated orphanages for disabled children. The second request is to supply the same items for a boarding school for children with disabilities. ¶I. International Military Education and Training (IMET): English Language testing and number of IMET students in US. ¶1. Training Snapshot Students at DLI: 11 Students at Specialty Training: 11 E-IMET: 0 ¶2. English Comprehension Level (ECL) Testing Students tested in October: 7 ¶3. PERSONNEL/RESOURCES/LOGISTICS ¶A. GAINS: Ms Hripsime Martirosyan was hired as the new Budget Analyst for ODC Armenia. She will officially begin work on/about 26 Nov 07. ¶B. LOSSES: None ¶C. ATTACHED PERSONNEL (TDY): None. ¶D. APPROVED LEAVES NEXT 30 DAYS: None ¶E. TDY NEXT 30 DAYS: None ¶F. RATING SCHEME CHANGES: None ¶G. EXTENSIONS/CURTAILMENTS: None. ¶5. ADMINISTRATIVE ISSUES: ¶A. EFFICIENCY REPORT SUSPENSES: None ¶B. AWARD SUSPENSES: None ¶C. PERSONNEL ACTIONS: None ¶6. ODC CHIEF'S COMMENTS: None. ¶7. POC for this message is LTC Doug Peterson. 37410-49-46-65 37410-46-47-36(fax) petersond@state.gov PENNINGTON