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