The gear disparity between US and UK units

Times:

For a few months at least, American forces in Helmand are looking with envy on their British comrades-in-arms. Camp Leatherneck, the colossus of a US base that is emerging from the Helmand desert, is still a dusty building site of toiling earthmovers, fly-blown tents and mobile toilets. In the British Camp Bastion, built three years ago, there are gleaming food halls, gravel roads, drainage systems and rows of air-conditioned sleeping quarters.

But on the battlefield the envy is often the other way round. The 4,000 US Marines involved in Operation Khanjar in the southern districts of Helmand have arrived in theatre, as is their modus operandi, with their own air support of between 50 and 100 aircraft. The figure cannot be given more accurately for security reasons, but it is at least as big as the entire air force of many small countries.

It includes US Marine Sea Stallion and Sea Knight transport helicopters — both variants on the Chinook that is the workhorse of British units — as well as Cobra and Apache attack helicopters and Harrier jump jets for close air support, and Hercules air-to-air refuelling aircraft.

The start of Operation Khanjar saw two entire Marine battalions airlifted deep into Taleban-controlled territory. The Marine aircraft are prioritised for use by their US parent unit, but will fly in support of British and other forces when they have “excess missions” that their own troops do not need. “We have lifted British troops, though not regularly,” one US Marine officer told The Times.

By comparison, the 8,000 British troops on the ground have been given the support of about 20 Chinook and other transport helicopters, including several Lynx helicopters that have difficulty flying in the summer heat.

However, a significant part of the US “surge” in Afghanistan is the arrival of Combat Aviation Brigade, a force of about 100 aircraft — both transport and attack — deployed in Regional Command South, the area that includes Helmand province.

This is a doubling of the number of US air support brigades in the country and these aircraft are available to all Nato forces on the ground. This does not mean that Britain’s helicopter needs will instantly be met. The air assets are allocated according to need on a bidding basis — meaning that Dutch, Canadian and Danish troops in the southern provinces, who have almost nothing, can all lay a claim, not to mention the 4,000 extra American troops sent to Kandahar province this year.

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This is what happens when a government's priority is rationed health care and not national security. The UK has been shrinking its defense budget for years and it is exposing its troops to more risks.