British Forces Prepare for Afghan Deployment
A large-scale British military exercise is soon to get underway which involves troops and assets set to be deployed to Afghanistan in coming months.
The ‘Mission Rehearsal Exercise’ is being held on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, UK, until August 1st, with as many as 5,800 soldiers and 500 vehicles taking part.
Airborne Assets
The soldiers – members of 3 Commando Brigade – will work alongside aircraft operated by the Royal Air Force, Royal Navy and Army Air Corps.
These aircraft include two RAF C-130 Hercules military transports while, on the helicopter front, as many as six Apache AH1s (Army Air Corps) are featuring, together with four Chinook HC.2s (operated by the RAF), two Lynx (Army Air Corps/ Royal Navy) and two Sea Kings (Royal Navy/ Royal Air Force).
Flying Hours
A 3 Commando Brigade spokesman described the exercise’s timings, and also spoke of the efforts being made to avoid public disruption.
"In principle, flying hours have been limited to between 0700 and 2300 BST during the week with only limited flying on weekends”, he said.
"However, on some occasions flying will be conducted throughout the night.
"Exercise planners have made every effort to avoid over-flying sensitive and built-up areas.
"While everything possible will be done to keep to the published plan, weather restrictions may necessitate slippage of some dates and venues."
3 Commando Brigade
3 Commando Brigade is comprised of a number of subordinate groups, including 42 Commando, 45 Commando and 40 Commando.
Members of the latter of these were deployed to Afghanistan between October 2007 and April 2008.
British Soldiers in Afghanistan
Approximately 7,800 British soldiers presently serve in Afghanistan.
To date, 109 British military personnel have been killed there since allied forces first started operations nearly seven years ago.
Source – Armed Forces International’s Aviation Expert
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