Military advisors, or combat advisors, are soldiers sent to foreign nations to aid that nation with its military training, organization, and other various military tasks. These soldiers are often sent to aid a nation without the potential casualties and political ramifications of mobilizing military forces to aid a nation.
Developing capabilities and increasing capacity through advising is an operation the U.S. Army has conducted for more than one hundred years. The Army has performed advisory missions to increase the capability and capacity of foreign militaries from the Philippine Insurrection at the beginning of the 20th Century to more recent conflicts in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan.
Combat advisors served on the front-lines of the U.S. War on Terror. They were designated as Embedded Training Teams in Afghanistan and Military Transition Teams in Iraq. These soldiers and Marines live with their Afghan and Iraqi counterparts in remote combat outposts often a great distance away from any U.S. or coalition support. ETTs and MTTs are composed primarily of United States Marines, United States Army, and United States Army National Guard personnel with a combat-arms background. United States Army Reserve, United States Air Force and United States Navy personnel serve as advisors in logistics and other support roles. The advisors on the ground in infantry or commando units of the ANA or the Iraqi Army are soldiers or Marines with combat-arms experience. Special Forces and Navy SEALS also work with ANA/ASF or the Iraqi Army, but the bulk of combat advisors are infantry and combat-arms soldiers and Marines.
The Combat Advisor Mission Defined. The combat advisor mission requires US officers and NCOs to teach, coach and mentor host nation security force counterparts. This enables the rapid development of our counterparts' leadership capabilities; helps develop command and control and operational capabilities at every echelon; allows direct access to Coalition Forces enablers to enhance HN security force counterinsurgency operations; and incorporates CF lethal and nonlethal effects on the battlefield.
Security Forces Assistance defines a more in-depth method of embedded mentorship. MTTs have fallen in disuse with shifts in focus and doctrine. Specifically, previous MTTs were created from soldiers from separate units, often on an ad hoc basis. SFATs, on the other hand, provide all personnel from organic, modular Brigade Combat Teams rather than supplying personnel piece-mealed from various Army units. By design, these teams are manned by a company command team and selected leaders from one command. This SFAT concept has been in place since 2012, with a "by, with and through" method of combat advising. Current Advisory Teams are trained at Fort Polk, Louisiana at the Advisor Academy, "Tigerland."
