JHC faces up to challenges in shift to contingency operations

[Zarvan]

After more than 10 years of operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, the UK's Joint Helicopter Command is now facing up to the challenges of a shift to preparing for contingency operations. Source: Crown Copyright

The UK Joint Helicopter Command (JHC) is facing significant challenges as it looks to pivot its capabilities away from the counterinsurgency (COIN) of the last decade-or-so to contingency operations, a senior official noted on 31 January.

Speaking in London under the Chatham House Rule, the official explained that this shift follows more than 10 years of helicopter operations in Afghanistan and Iraq and affects every aspect of the command's personnel and equipment.

"The [Strategic Defence and Security Review] in 2015 set objectives for UK defence, and the cornerstone is for the force-generation of modernised capabilities that are able to fight against peer and near-peer adversaries in a European theatre by 2025," the official said, adding, "This is known as Joint Force 2025. This peer and near-peer capability coupled with the continued need to counter more asymmetric threats broadly outlines what contingency is all about. The JHC is meeting this contingency challenge, which affects everything that we do; across manning, equipment, training, and sustainability."

As the official noted, JHC had become "too comfortable" with the certainties that came with operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, and that the changes that come with contingency require a real shift in the command's mindset.

"More than 10 years of campaigning has allowed us to condition ourselves to operate and sustain forces for a specific operation in which we understood the theatre and the environment, and in which the enemy was relatively unsophisticated and did not degrade or limit our operations. We had air superiority and enjoyed safe bases to which efficient logistic support structures could be developed, and we knew who our allies were and that we could interoperate with them. We have now become too comfortable with asymmetry - being trained and equipped to fight an enemy that is vastly inferior to us in terms of technology, mass, and resources.

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