AAR DAY EVOLUTION SAT 18TH APRIL

Danger and Engage teams were mobilised in the early hours of the morning to assist in transfer a group of sensitive surveillance equipment from their FOB to some outlaying OPs to their north.

Here is a section of the briefing for Danger team members:

Sukla Star – Helmand Province, Afghanistan – Sat 18th April 2009 – 1100 hrs – Danger Team

Orientation
Welcome back to Helmand gentlemen. Your expertise is going to be greatly appreciated here at this time of the year. The Taliban are on the move as you have been made aware. With the troop surge coming to fruition a little slower than expected, the TB have been attempting to reclaim recently lost areas of the AO to try and persuade the locals of their strength and success in battling the coalition forces. The Canadians have really been on the receiving end of it lately with 2 road side bombs claiming 4 of their soldiers.

Situation
HQ has established a number of secure OPs in the AO and these have been very successful in providing Intel to us for our operations. With the increase of TB activity, we are moving to support these positions by upgrading a number of them to Combat Posts. This means a number of items need to be moved out to them and these can only be done via foot due to the nature of the terrain. It also means we have send out full sections in case they bump into anything nasty moving around out there.

We know the enemy does have spotters and recon elements out and about. They will be armed with their usually loadout of soviet and chinese style ARs and RPGs. I wouldn’t expect too many support weapons but who knows. And definitely no mortar support. They will most likely be very mobile, so expect to be left alone on occasion as they attempt to break contact. It is up to you whether or not you pursue them.

Your force is made up of Danger team. Other Sections will be operating in the area in similar style activities but none in your sector which runs on the right (East side) of the main creek that splits our AO in two.

You have Casevac available on standby at FOB Bastion to the south. They are RAF and Australian Chinooks designated “White Knight”. Call them only if needed.

You have no attachments/detachments.

Mission
Your mission is to take a number of asset crates through the AO on foot to be delivered to OPs in our north. There are 4 maybe 5 of these to be moved today. Due to the nature of these item, only 1 of them can be in transit at any one time. Once delivered, the personnel manning those sites may get you to return with something, so be open to taking items both ways. Always radio in once you have reached either of your 2 waypoints for any Intel updates.

Execution
Commander’s intent is to move various items of surveillance to our OPs in the north safely and securely.

You will Infil on foot from Waypoint Shogun at grid Quebec 27 at 1100 hrs, set up comms with Zero Alpha before moving out on your objective. Once you get the green light from Zero Alpha, you are to execute your transit on foot to OP Grant at grid Oscar 6 and deliver the 1st item by 1200 hrs. Once secure, radio into Zero Alpha for any updated Intel and then return to WP Shogun for the next item.

Administration/Logistics
Make sure you have enough food and water with you.
Ammo loadout should be as standard with 14 clips for ARs and 5 for SAWs.
No QRF are available.
Casevac is available as stated.

Command/Signal
Zero Alpha will be located at FOB Robertson and is be designated “Zero Alpha”.
Use secure channel 20.
Casevac is located at Camp Bastion and is designated “White Knight”.

Both teams headed out to their Infil points with their assets safely in their hands. Engage had trouble from the start locating their Infil point and moved too far to the North East. They eventually recalibrated their navigation aids and were back on track.

Minor contacts were made with enemy fighters as both teams attempted their 1st delivery.

Danger was 1st to get to their drop off point and delivered their assets in perfect working order. They then turned around and began their trek for their 2nd delivery.

At around 1230 hrs, orders came through to both teams to move to locate and secure a UK pilot forced to ditch his Typhoon fighter nearby. He was believed to have parachuted to safety in the heights towards the centre of the AO. Both teams were to find him and secure the area for the SAR team to arrive and extract him. Danger was the 1st on scene and professionally established a secure perimeter and recovered the pilot. Due to the difficult terrain, radio links with HQ were unreliable and Danger was unable to get confirmation on the SAR team. Danger Team leader decided to move south with his prize in order to get as close to friendly territory and therefore SAR extraction as possible. Danger team ended up escort the pilot all the way to link up with a perimeter patrol from the FOB at which they handed him over and returned back on mission for their 2nd asset delivery.

During this time, Engage sustained an injury and required an immediate extraction of a serious injured team member. They managed to move to lower ground where a vehicle could get in and the soldier was taken away to the field hospital at the FOB.

With this delay they could not get to assist in the pilot recovery and were soon back on mission with their asset to delivery.

Just prior to Engage making their delivery, orders came through for both teams to move on a hilltop location where a regular UAV overflight had spotted a group of MAMs taking weapons out of a concrete water tank. Closer inspection of the footage revealed the unused Water tank was indeed a weapons cache. Both teams were tasked with moving urgently to the location to engage and eliminate any enemy presence and to destroy the cache with any explosives found within it. Should no explosives be found, they were secure the area and radio in for a clearance team to move to them to destroy it for them.

This mission took the rest of the day for both teams as they encountered heavy resistance moving into the area of the cache from numerous groups of enemy fighters. A number of casualties were taken and a Casevac was requested by both teams.

In the end the mission was abandoned due to the oncoming night and the number of casualties sustained.

Both teams extracted on foot back to FOB Robertson and moved en masse to the chow hall for a feed.