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Modern Warfare 3 – ONN from kenny yuan on Vimeo.

It was the largest roll of notes I’d ever seen. 3 grand in fifty pound notes. The guy who hauled it out did so as if it were a rolled up copy of the Sun. One night on sentry I had a conversation with another guy on how his law exams were going. Another evening those of us new to the unit went through a joining process at the end of which we were judged by our peers as suitable to serve alongside them.

The side effect of leaving us in a state of complete physical incapability as we crawled into our pits in the early morning was only a minor talking point, getting up the next day for annual fitness tests just another non event none of us stopped to think about for a second. No one failed.

No one ever fails.

The daily grind of camp life is a very different experience from the outside world. But in here our unit attracts all walks of life – academics, tradesmen & school leavers alike. It’s a varied environment. Which is just as well, as the amount of skills our squad needs to pick up en route to Afghan is also pretty diverse.

Forensics, electronic counter measures, IED search, team medics, language – the modern nature of warfighting has morphed the battlefield into a highly dynamic multidimensional theatre where quick thinking across any number of domains previously the reserve of the trained specialist is required.

To aid the man on the ground in this our kit has seen a near constant flux as new equipment is both trialled & issued to the field in rapid evolutions. On an individual level, we’ve never been better supplied. Which is just as well, as the Helmand insurgency proper has been going on for upwards of 5 years now.

To our North the US has created blitzkrieg-like conditions to take the war to the Sangin Talebs who had proven so stubborn when we were there. It’s a bloody tactic but appears to be yielding results. The Taleban soon adapt to new tactics, the question is whether coalition forces can manoeuvre more effectively.

I haven’t tasted war yet but I’m glad I’m going in with those I’ve trained alongside these past months. The ever-changing situation in a tribal matrix such as Helmand demands fighters who adapt breathlessly.

There is undoubtedly a feeling of relief as much as anything that we can get a chance to make the training count for real. And while reconstruction and war fighting at times seem to occupy the same ground – just completely different dimensions – it will also feel good to ascertain first hand just what is happening on the dusty desert wastelands of southern Afghanistan.

And so too, while I believe in the benefits of troops developing their own ideas of the way ahead, the inevitable clash with reality on the ground is another interesting context for the experiences of deployment.

We’ve been hanging around a while, things are now getting decidedly faster.

Even when compared with the private sector in Northern Ireland, armed forces pay scales are looking increasingly attractive:

Generally unless you hold a specialist skill the lower band rate applies. Levels are equivalent to years spent at that rank, incrementing annually from start date at that level.

Catching up on the African agenda, looks like tentative steps to get around the piracy problem have been taken by the West.  Hope to do my LC course next year so maybe I’ll get a part of the action at some stage in the future.  Frankly I’m surprised it took this long for Royal to get in on the act.  While Brigade is out in Ghanners, a landlocked AOR should in theory at least free up 539 Assault Squadron for maritime ops.

And there’s a lot to be done.  The Ukranian vessel MV Faina (operating under a Belize flag of convenience) and it’s crew are still being held to ransom.  Not to mention their cargo of 33 T-72s bound for South Sudan seemingly under Kenyan patronage (or Ethiopia?).  Keep up to date with arms deals here.

Meanwhile it remains to be seen whether Somali pirate activity dies down.  Further reports of hijacking attempts on Chinese & Russian vessels are filtering through.  And the corporates are sensing blood,  with some getting results.  There is a deep rooted issue that is lost amid the intrigue & imagery created by the pirates actions.  The lack of anything resembling governance coming out of Mogadishu, together with deep-rooted international ambivalence had allowed illegal poaching to run unchecked in Somali coastal waters despite the warnings.  The long term solution to piracy is to defend the Somali waters against the poachers, many seemingly of Chinese origin.

With the Islamic Courts Union on the march once more, it’s all happening.