Posted on 08/28/2006 5:40:05 AM PDT by Marius3188
British forces suffered their 14th combat death in Afghanistan yesterday as commanders admitted that intense fighting against the Taliban meant they were using up missiles, rockets and spares at an alarming rate.
The vital Apache attack helicopters have been particularly hard hit with a senior Army source claiming that stocks of weapons and components meant to last until April next year could be used up "well before Christmas".
British combat troops are so few on the ground in Helmand province - effectively one battalion, 500-600 fighting troops, to cover an area the size of Scotland - that they are having to call in air strikes by American B1 bombers and other aircraft on a daily basis.
The eight Apaches in Helmand are operating at full stretch, answering calls for help from British patrols and small outlying garrisons. The £1 billion in funding promised by the Treasury for the intended three-year deployment is being used up at a much faster rate than predicted and Apache units in Britain will have to be stripped of their weapons, spares and flying hours to cope. The MoD may have to ask for more money from the Treasury or face cutting other budgets.
The soldier killed in the early hours of yesterday was a member of 14 Signal Regiment, which specialises in electronic eavesdropping and jamming. He may have been monitoring Taliban communications. He died during an assault on what was described as a "platoon house" in Musa Qaleh in the north of Helmand.
Brigadier Ed Butler, the commander of the British contingent in Helmand, said: "The Taliban are a determined enemy, and the challenge of bringing security to Musa Qaleh is a continuing one. But we are well on track to succeed."
The statement was one of a number of optimistic assessments issuing from senior British officers, including one last week suggesting that the Taliban had "gone away to lick their wounds".
Objective reporting of the fighting in Helmand is lacking due to the refusal of commanders to have journalists at forward bases.
It has also emerged that the Royal Military Police are investigating six shooting incidents in Afghanistan involving British soldiers. The circumstances are unknown. British paratroopers have, as senior commanders admit, been involved in the most prolonged period of intense fighting since the Korean War. What should have been a security operation covering a major reconstruction effort to win "hearts and minds" has turned into a full-blown war.
The intensity of the air support needed to keep the Taliban attacks at bay is far beyond anything Government ministers expected when they authorised the deployment in January. US Air Force data show that Musa Qalah has been bombed by USAF B-1s, A-10 ground-attack aircraft and RAF Harriers on almost every day this month. US aircraft have attacked the town on more than 20 occasions and there was only one day this month that US aircraft did not bomb targets in Helmand province.
Before British troops arrived there was barely one call a week for air support.
In January, Mr Reid distanced Britain from US tactics that relied on heavy bombing. He said: "We are not going to Afghanistan to wage war - we are going in order to help the Afghan people."
Although it was intended that only six of the Apaches should fly daily, demands for air support mean that all eight are being flown to help troops pinned down. A number of the helicopters have been hit by Taliban fire but none has been seriously damaged.
The Boeing-made Apaches must have key components replaced after a set number of hours flying. Army Air Corps officers now say these are being used up at an alarming rate. Spares and usage of Hellfire missiles, rockets and 30mm chain gun ammunition is much higher than expected. One officer predicted the Apache budget for the financial year April 2006 would be used up well before Christmas.
The inauguration of the Army's third and final Apache regiment may have to be delayed to save money. "It could put at risk the fielding of the full Apache force structure", said a senior officer.
The UK force, due to number 4,500 by the autumn, is conducting operations from its desert base, Camp Bastion, near the provincial capital Lashkar Gah. Reinforcements announced last month by Des Browne, the Defence Secretary, and the retention of the RAF Harrier force will further strain the defence budget. It was reported last week that the Army's Land Command is having to make £40 million of emergency cuts to cope.
A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: "Supplies are restocked as and when they are needed."
She said that British troops were involved in a Nato mission and that US air support was a part of that mission.
Nothing like tellin' the whole damn world.............
Do they have to quit when all their ammo is gone?
I don't get it.
How come the Taliban are not all dead by now?
Author: Neil Tweedie?
IF YOU STEP UP YOUR ATTACKS, WE WILL DEPLETE OUR STOCKS AND BE UNABLE TO DEFEND OURSELVES!
"In January, Mr Reid distanced Britain from US tactics that relied on heavy bombing. He said: "We are not going to Afghanistan to wage war - we are going in order to help the Afghan people.""
"Although it was intended that only six of the Apaches should fly daily, demands for air support mean that all eight are being flown to help troops pinned down."
Hard to help the people when you're pinned down, huh?
When an enemy is at war with you, you are at war with them, like it or not.
What the hell happened to keeping secrets during a war? The MSM is hell bent on letting the enemy know exactly what is happening. "Hey, taliban, we are running out of ammo, come and get us!". What POS.
Maybe they are not dying at the rate we are told.
Same here, we can kill a bunch of these scum but as we leave they just filter back in, especially since we are leaving everything intact so as not to cause collateral damage.
It's long past time to tell our "allies" you may not agree 100% with us but if you want any support from us you better pony up. And I don't mean with 100-200 troops or advisors I mean 50-100,000 troops each.
Let's just get this done! (I know it's fantasy)
The British press is even worse than ours.
Too few troops and not enough border security.
I've said it before, and I think most of us realize this... We need to send a message the Taliban and their supporters actually understand and will respond to (drilling wells for villages isn't one of them). That message is utter and total violence. It's the ONLY thing they understand. We do this by sending a message: ANYTHING and ANYONE caught crossing the border with Pakistan will be annihilated on the spot, no questions asked. Further, villages harboring Taliban fighters will be swept and every single male with ANY association with the Taliban will be killed on the spot. There will be no prisoners. Once a village is swept we, and Afghan forces, will ake total control. Any mosque that is found to be storing weapons will be flattened and the Imam will be executed on the spot. Lastly, any Taliban fighters killed will have a pork chop shoved in their mouth and will be buried face down.
THAT is a message they will understand. They continue to attack because they do not fear us or death. If we want security in that region we must make them fear both.
You're all wrong. This is not 'the media' being bent on 'letting the enemy know what's happening'. This is (yet another in an alarming series of) the British army pleading with the British government to actually give them the proper equipment to do their jobs.
Instead of the knee jerk reactions, consider who is saying what to who, and why.
The British army has consistently been lacking in basic equipement and using machinery which is operating to its limits, due to the negligent and incompetent policies of our government. Men have died due to this negligence and incompetence. Not only is the media justified in reporting this, they damn well should be reporting it.
The media didn't have to print/report it. It could have been handled discreetly thru proper channels. The media wants to report everthing that is detrimental to the WOT, no matter what..........
"The vital Apache attack helicopters have been particularly hard hit with a senior Army source claiming that stocks of weapons and components meant to last until April next year could be used up "well before Christmas"."
Let's see. The brits have been routing taliban and using up weapons ahead of schedule by four months and this is a crisis?
"The media didn't have to print/report it. It could have been handled discreetly thru proper channels. The media wants to report everthing that is detrimental to the WOT, no matter what"
Do you really think that hasn't occured already? The British army is not prone to whingeing in public with no cause. Do you think that these concerns have not been relayed through the 'proper channels'? When you have men dying because someone has taken their body armour away from them, do you not think that the time has passed for continuing to handle things through the 'proper channels' with no results?
Once again you seem to be letting your knee jerk determination to blame 'the media' for everything get in the way of understanding what is occuring here. And you obviously have no background knowledge of the source, as the Telegraph has been and continues to be a staunch supporter of British operations in Afghanistan and Iraq throughout.
" The brits have been routing taliban and using up weapons ahead of schedule by four months and this is a crisis?"
It suggests that the mission has been ill conceived in the planning stages, as it wasn't supposed to involve routing the Taliban at all, as welcome as that may be. If there are supply issues with restocking those weapons then, yes, that would be something of a crisis.
If the army has to resort to public forums to air what is surely a matter of top security concerns, then the government is totally inept and incompetent. Not to be critical of Blair, but there are always entrenched bureaucrats that have their own agendas aside from that of the ruling party, whichever it may be. Same here. The bureaucrats run the government. The lack of oversight can be laid at the feet of the PM/MPs, but if it has come to this state where the media must be used in order to get attention to a problem, then the cause may already be lost.................when is the next election?...........
Well, I'm quite sure that the Brit commanders understood that fighting would be involved in S. Afghanistan. And I'm glad to see them pressing the issue. I salute them.
And I'm confident that with or without this over the top article, the resupplies needed will reach them before Christmas.
I will bow to your knowledge on the subject. I am so used to the NYT ratting out our security measures and badmouthing our troops that any criticism in the MSM of troops, allies included, irritates the hell out of me and I tend to overreact maybe. If the situation is as you say, then I hope the Brits get what they need.
It seems it is a case of the left, once again, trying to fight a war "on the cheap". They think somehow that you can fight a war without killing anyone, taking casualties or spending money.
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