Afghan partnering unit (APU)

Hi All,

Here are some of the insignia of the Afghan Partnering Unit (APU).

The APU is a Afghan special forces unit with member drawn mainly from the Afghan commandos.

They are equipped in the hyperstealth uniform and to a lesser extent have been seen in multicam. Along with better weapons and equipment than the regular Afghan forces.

Article on the APU: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/25/us-afghanistan-nightraids-idUSTRE80O16B20120125

All photos are open source.

I hope this information is helpful.

Cheers
Jason

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Well worn 2 piece set of APU tab and cut down ANA commando insignia. As worn by the member.

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Round full color APU insignia with incomplete wording.


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Grey subdued round APU patch.

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Full color Afghan special forces/commando insignia as seen worn by the APU.

This is the last from me, if anyone has any additional insignia please add them!

Cheers
Jason

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Nice patches well done

Nice!

aussie digger wrote:[img][/img]

MIBOLC! Now THAT guy must be one heck of a Soldier!

Jason,
Cool patches!

Thanks guys! Also have this example but as yet havnt seen evidence of them in use.

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Wow! That round APU patch is much bigger than what I've seen before. Mine are all much smaller. Good score!

Mark

Thanks, Mark. Do you think the patch maybe an earlier piece?

msmith275 wrote:Wow! That round APU patch is much bigger than what I've seen before. Mine are all much smaller. Good score!

Mark

To me, it looks like the circular patch is standard size, but the Commando patch looks smaller than normal.

nkomo wrote:  Thanks, Mark.  Do you think the patch maybe an earlier piece?

Not Mark but I think it's a more recent version. Like the ASG. My thoughts only ......

nkomo wrote:  Thanks, Mark.  Do you think the patch maybe an earlier piece?

Gosh, I have to say it's hard for me to say older/newer - I'd lean to agreeing with Lance that there's a good chance it's newer. By that - the contruction looks like anything 2006-2007 to now. There are patches coming out 2013-2014 from certain places in Afghanistan that are super high quality. This looks like your average quality Afghan patch.

When I look at the multi-cam pattern, it appears to me like the ANA Cdo patches are normal full size and therefore that APU patch is bigger than normal (if the ANA Cdo's were the small versions - that would put that ASG patch as a mini-patch, and it does not look like that) - if all that is true, then we've seen lots and lots of photos of APU operators and never seen that larger size patch. So either this one slipped under the radar for 8 or so years or it's newer and we just haven't seen photos yet.

Are the ANA Cdo patches normal sized? Or are they smaller? I guess that's one of the key pieces of info needed to go much further.

Thanks!

Mark

Here's some Afghan Partnering Unit (APU) insignia



Matt
Blood On The Risers Militaria

Very cool! Any chance you know the significance of "1388"?

Nice patch

In the Afghan/Persian Calendar their year 1388 corresponds with March 2009 - March 2010, and may be what the numbers reference on the patch.