From the Scotsman.
Stretched RAF may use civilian aircraft for Afghan mission
JAMES KIRKUP
WESTMINSTER EDITOR
THE RAF will be put under such pressure by the deployment of British troops to Afghanistan that soldiers could be flown out to the mission on chartered civilian aircraft, it has emerged.
John Reid, the Defence Secretary, will today tell MPs about the deployment, which could see another 3,500 troops sent to Afghanistan as part of a NATO mission.
The Ministry of Defence yesterday confirmed that 3,000 troops from the 16th Air Assault Brigade had been training on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire this week "for a possible deployment to Afghanistan".
The mission is already beset by confusion. Britain and NATO partners argue about the precise role British forces will play in Afghanistan, as well as how many troops other countries will offer to the mission.
Now Air Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, the head of the Royal Air Force, has publicly warned that supporting the Afghan deployment will put his fast-shrinking service under severe strain.
The RAF is losing more than 12,000 personnel and more than 100 aircraft as the government restructures the armed forces.
"Two [simultaneous] operations will put considerable stress on our air transport fleet," Sir Jock said.
"We can cover the operations, but it will be testing."
The problem facing RAF planners is the shortage of transport aircraft equipped with defensive aids systems and anti-missile countermeasures.
Hundreds of troops due to return from Iraq were effectively stranded for several days before Christmas due to the shortage of such planes in working order.
One option under consideration for the Afghan mission is said to be using commercial flights to ferry troops to relatively stable countries in the region such as Pakistan or Uzbekistan, before transferring them on to RAF planes equipped for the hazardous flight into southern Afghanistan. Once they have arrived in Helmand province, the British troops will embark on a mission that is still poorly defined.
British military planners see their principal responsibilities as helping reconstruct the shattered region, and in the process tackling local drug gangs who grow poppies for heroin, as well as any remnants of the former Taleban regime.
But other NATO members, particularly the US, are calling for the British forces to take on a counter-terrorism role, helping American special forces pursue members of al-Qaeda in the unstable Pakistani border area.
Last week, the Ministry of Defence accused Victoria Nuland, the US ambassador, of being "misleading" about the British mission after she suggested that UK forces would be hunting terrorists.
There are also questions about which countries will serve alongside Britain's forces. NATO expects the Netherlands to provide up to 1,200 troops, although that deployment is subject to a knife-edge vote in the Dutch parliament next week.
In the Commons yesterday, Dr Reid conceded that uncertainty over Britain's allies could prevent him from making a definitive announcement to MPs today.
"I am not satisfied... that we have a NATO configuration of military troops around us which satisfies me," he said.