british survival

By admin, July 25, 2009 6:56 am

Soldiers in the British army?

Someone I know is joining the army soon and I need to know what chance the average soldier has of survival and if he will be fighting in combat in battle fields?
I’m a bit clueless to all of this so any help will be appreciated

@AgProv – 8000 are currently in Afghanistan. Fewer than 200 have died since the start of Operation HERRICK in 2003. In that time, there have been over 100,000 individual tours, accounting for over 50,000 separate individuals who have conducted a tour of HERRICK. That’s statistically about a one-in-250 chance of death.

Of course, this is a misleading statistic (what statistic isn’t?). For example, the chances of an Army medic dying are considerably lower than those of a Royal Marine. It’s also misleading because deaths on ops tend to cluster around enemy action.

At the moment, the Taliban opponents of NATO operations are focusing considerable resources on Helmand province, where most UK personnel are to be found. Moreover, the vast majority of deaths in the last six months have come as a result of the switch by the Taleban to IEDs and remote-detonated roadside bombs. In earlier periods, their opposition was more traditionally Afghan, involving direct engagement between armed units: something they rapidly discovered they just weren’t as good at as their NATO enemies. Hence the change.

Fortunately, if there’s one thing that UK Armed Forces are good at, it’s adapting to new enemy tactics and, frankly, IEDs are old hat to the UK’s military, thanks to our friends in Northern Ireland.

The Taleban have the benefit of thousands of unexploded Soviet antitank munitions (the “device” in most IEDs) which make them particularly deadly. But their use of these devices will cost them in terms of local support (as Afghan nationals can see that the Taleban cannot face NATO on traditional terms: something that will cause them considerable loss of face) and present a menu of well-established tactics to handle them. The increased use of helicopter patrols is an obvious option.

We should expect to see the death-rate slow down again by Christmas at the latest (to accommodate a new roulement of personnel who will have been better trained in the new tactics).

To the OP, finally, it’s worth remembering that, even with Op HERRICK in fun swing, the Army isn’t even in the top ten of professions likely to cause death or serious injury in the UK. Forestry worker, oil rigger, fisherman and police officer all rate higher in that respect than soldier.

The BNP Resistance – Fighting for British survival