Searing heat new enemy in Helmand

Chinook helicopters are being overworked due to the poor performance of British Lynx aircraft in the inhospitable conditions of Helmand. Picture / Reuters

KABUL - British forces in Afghanistan are facing an air supply crisis because nearly half of their helicopter transport fleet is unable to fly during the day due to the searing Helmand heat

The 3300 British troops in the south of Afghanistan rely on a total of six Chinook and four Lynx helicopters for all their transport and supply needs. But military sources have confirmed that the Lynx, an attack and utility helicopter, is adversely affected by the extreme heat and thin, rising air of the Helmand desert, and has been limited to use between dusk and dawn only when the extreme temperatures fall to acceptable levels.

The British military spokesman with the Helmand force, Captain Drew Gibson, declined to comment on Lynx's problems, citing "operational reasons" and Lieutenant Rob Hunt, the British military spokesman in Kabul, defended the limitations.

"The Lynx is just one of a range of aircraft available to ground commanders in the theatre. All air assets have their own operating margin and this is true of the Lynx, as any other aircraft," he said. "They are still a valued and useful asset in the theatre, whatever their operating restrictions."

The commander of British forces in the south, Brigadier Ed Butler, admitted he had made a request for new equipment for the British force in Helmand amid a dramatic increase in attacks on his troops. Five British soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan in the past three weeks.

"I have put in requests, which are being considered back in London as we speak, to take account of changing circumstances," Butler told the BBC. He insisted that the British force was "well-trained, well-prepared and well-equipped" for the job at hand.

The questions surrounding the Lynx have compounded an already precarious situation for logistical support elements of the British force.

Speaking at a press conference last month General David Richards, overall Nato commander in Afghanistan, admitted the transport helicopters available to forces in the south remained at the level they were at the start of this year, even though the number of troops has more than doubled since that time.

A Chinook resupply flight had to be cancelled last month because a US soldier the based with British troops in Musa Qala, in the north of the province, needed air evacuation to deal with appendicitis. The evacuation would normally have been carried out by a Lynx helicopter; instead, the Chinook, an aircraft able to carry 54 troops or 11 tons of equipment, had to be used for a single casualty.

British forces pinned down by Taleban insurgents near the town of Gereshk last Tuesday waited for more than four hours for air support because all available cover was elsewhere and no Lynx helicopters were able to fly.

- INDEPENDENT