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All the Queen's Horses: The British Mission in Afghanistan

By Madonna Walsh, Boeing Defence UK Communications

Back to Dispatches from Afghanistan

"Operation Herrick" is the code name for the United Kingdom's military operations in Afghanistan. Since 2002, British forces have played a significant role in both the NATO- and U.S.-led operations.

"The British role in Afghanistan is to improve the security on the ground to allow the [Afghan] government to make the lives of Afghans better," said Group Capt. Andy Turner, Commander Joint Aviation Group Afghanistan. "We can do that through aiding and abetting the election process and voter registration, and also through building institutions which will see Afghanistan through to the long term."

The Joint Aviation Group provides support to the provincial reconstruction teams, supporting the governors in the development of local Afghan institutions. The Joint Helicopter Force Afghanistan (JHF(A)) reports to the Joint Aviation Group and helps the governor and his key ministry chiefs to get out among the Afghan people and to develop governance across the region, which includes Helmand, Kandahar, Uruzgan and Zabul provinces.

"The work we do is very much trying to help shape the environment and clear the insurgents to allow reconstruction and development to occur," said the Commanding Officer Joint Helicopter Force Afghanistan Forward at Camp Bastion (identity withheld for security). "These operations, like commando raids or air assaults, are directed at the heart of where we know the enemy is, so that we can take him on at the time and place of our choosing."

JHF(A) includes members of the Royal Navy and Royal Marines, British Army, and the Royal Air Force. Apaches flown by the British Army Air Corps provide escort, surveillance, reconnaissance and strike when necessary, while Chinooks flown by the Royal Air Force conduct lift, insertion missions, and casualty evacuations.

When in theater, the men and women who fly and maintain these aircraft operate as a single unit.

"These four forces are quite the collection of different ethos and style," said Turner. "But when you draw them together, they're almost indistinct. We work and talk very similarly and other than the aircraft we fly in the sky, you couldn't tell the difference between an army, marine, a navy and an air force person."