U.S. Plans to Boost Afghan Firepower - WSJ.com: "The Afghan army is likely to be supplied with light armored personnel carriers next year, a major upgrade of its capabilities, a senior coalition official said. There are also plans to provide the Afghans with more artillery firepower, and with limited air surveillance and reconnaissance capacity.
Afghan requests for heavy weapons were previously brushed off as impracticable and unsuitable to the U.S. counterinsurgency strategy here.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai, at a news conference Wednesday with visiting U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, said he was recently told by U.S. officials that Washington will provide 'thousands of armored vehicles and personnel carriers' to the Afghan army, but complained that this wasn't enough."
