UK Afghan Commitment Under Constant Review
03 November, 2009
LONDON : A British soldier was killed by an improvised explosive device near Sangin, in central Helmand, at the weekend, taking to 87 the number of UK service personnel killed in southern Afghanistan this year.
News of the death on Saturday of the soldier, a member of the Royal Logistics Corps, came amid fresh questions about the Afghan presidential election, which could affect Gordon Brown’s agreement in principle to deploy a further 500 UK troops to join the 9,000 already there.
The prime minister has said they could be deployed only on condition that there was a "legitimate" Afghan government in place, that Kabul would agree to an effective "Afghanisation" of economic and social development, and security forces, and that British troops would be properly equipped.
"Our first priority is the safety and security of our troops," Brown said today. "We need the infant Afghan democracy to be stable and inclusive."
The death toll of 87 is a huge increase on last year, when 51 British service personnel were killed. In 2007, 42 died, and in 2006 there were 39 deaths, according to Ministry of Defence figures.
The death comes after years of simmering disputes between military commanders and the government over the shortage of British helicopters in Afghanistan burst out into the open last week with a leaked classified memo from Lieutenant Colonel Rupert Thorneloe of the Welsh Guards. He complained to London about the dangerous shortage of helicopters weeks before he was killed by a roadside bomb while travelling in a armoured vehicle.
For at least three years, British defence chiefs have been demanding more helicopters for use in Afghanistan.
Merlin helicopters can carry up to 45 troops. One of the aircraft due to be deployed to southern Afghanistan this week is among six Britain originally sold to the Danes, but bought back from them in 2007. They were said to be ready for deployment more than a year ago, but their RAF pilots are currently being trained in California.
Officials said todaythat financial pressure on the defence budget was not the main problem. "There are not enough helicopters and not enough pilots," one official explained. Officials now admit that the MoD was far too slow in procuring helicopters for the army.
In a military memo on 5 June, headed "Battle Group Weekly Update", Thorneloe said: "I have tried to avoid griping about helicopters - we all know we don’t have enough. This increases our exposure to bombs at the roadside ... This month we have conducted a great deal of administrative movement by road. The current level of helicopter support is unsustainable."
He added that the situation had "increased our exposure to IEDs [improvised explosive devices]", saying that the system used to manage helicopters in Afghanistan "is very clearly not fit for purpose".
Thorneloe was killed by an IED on1 July, with Trooper Joshua Hammond.
Brown told a news conference on 22 July: "In the operations we are having at the moment, it is completely wrong to say that the loss of lives has been caused by the absence of helicopters. We have the helicopters we need."
Less than a week earlier, the Commons defence committee had warned that a shortage of medium- and heavy-lift battlefield helicopters was undermining operations and risking British lives.
In a reference to Thorneloe’s leaked memo, Bill Rammell, the armed forces minister, said on Saturday: "We do not commit troops - and the service chiefs will confirm this - if there is an unacceptable balance of risk. It is not an issue of ministers being unwilling to commit the resources. That is why we’ve significantly expanded the helicopter fleet, both in terms of numbers and flying hours, and why more are coming."
Rammell added: "That cannot guarantee against the loss of life, because the Taliban have hugely increased their planting of improvised explosive devices. We cannot succeed in Afghanistan just in heavily-armoured vehicles, or in helicopters. The military will tell you that to win hearts and minds you need boots on the ground - that entails a risk."
Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, the chief of defence staff, said many of the UK casualties occurred when soldiers were on foot patrols that were "critical" to the military operation. "You cannot conduct a counter-insurgency from behind metal," he said. He added: "There is no such thing as enough support helicopters. You can always use more. We are providing the maximum we can as rapidly as we can."
Peter Hammond, the father of Trooper Hammond, who was sitting next to Thorneloe and driving the vehicle when they were killed, attacked Brown for claiming it was "completely wrong" to blame the absence of helicopters for the loss of lives. He said from his Plymouth home: "Brown’s either a liar or hasn’t a clue what’s going on. He should do the right thing and quit."
There are believed to be fewer than 30 British military helicopters in southern Afghanistan.
The Sunday Times reported yesterday that a former defence official warned that strobe lights which replaced anti-collision lights interfered with the vision of pilots of Sea King helicopters. Seven personnel were killed when two Royal Navy Sea Kings collided in the opening days of the Iraq invasion in March 2003.
The MoD said todaythat strobe lighting was fitted to all Sea Kings. It said a board of inquiry into the crash concluded there was insufficient evidence to "determine positively" the cause. Strobe lighting was not identified as the cause of the crash, it added.
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