Kabul Military Training Center

The Kabul Military Training Centre (KMTC) is a basic training centre for the Afghan Armed Forces. Located about 8 miles to the east on the outskirts of Kabul, it offers basic courses including 16 week basic infantry training.

Kabul Military Training Center is one of the biggest basic infantry centers in Afghanistan. As of April 2008, of the 70,000 Afghans which had entered the Afghan National Army (ANA), a third had been trained at the KMTC between 2007 and 2008.

It is a separate institution to the National Military Academy of Afghanistan (NMAF). Although they are both located on the outskirts of Kabul, and some of the training they operate is interchangeable, the Kabul Military Training Centre should be thought of as Kabul's local training institution while the NMAF is a national institution.

Basic training
The KMTC undertakes basic infantry training of new recruits with a 16 week basic training course. Capable of graduating a 615-man battalion every four weeks there are roughly 2,500 soldiers undertaking training at any one time.

Literacy training
A major focus of the development of the Afghan armed forces is on raising the levels of literacy among the troops. In 2009 less than 35% of recruits could pass basic weapon qualification due to low literacy levels. Recruits were unable to properly read instructions in order to maintain or operate complex western supplied rifles and additional components such as optics. As a result recruits had to undertake at least 64 hours of lessons in basic reading, writing and arithmetic in order to pass Grade 1 and move to their units.

Recruits were also given the option of a further 128 hours to advance to grade 2 to bring their total to 192 hours. To achieve Grade 3 they had to undertake a further 120 hours which gave them 312 hours of literacy training in total.