Afghanistan — 5 SCOTS take over training of Afghan Police in Helmand

The Argyll and Suther­land High­landers, 5th Bat­tal­ion The Roy­al Reg­i­ment of Scot­land (5 SCOTS), have tak­en over respon­si­bil­i­ty for the Police Devel­op­ment Advi­so­ry Train­ing Team (PDATT) in Hel­mand province.

A grad­u­a­tion cer­e­mo­ny at the Hel­mand Police Train­ing Cen­tre in Lashkar Gah mark­ing the end of an eight-week patrol­man course Source: Cor­po­ral Gary Kendall RLC, Min­istry of Defence, UK Click to enlarge

5 SCOTS have tak­en over this task from 1st Bat­tal­ion The Mer­cian Reg­i­ment (Cheshire) [1 MERCIAN] as part of the trans­fer of author­i­ty from 4th Mech­a­nized Brigade to 16 Air Assault Brigade as the lead for­ma­tion of UK troops in Helmand. 

The trans­fer from 1 MERCIAN to 5 SCOTS was marked by a sim­ple exchange of plaques at the PDATT head­quar­ters at the main oper­at­ing base in Lashkar Gah. 

The PDATT was intro­duced by 4th Mech­a­nized Brigade to lead police devel­op­ment in the task force area of operations. 

Over the last six months they have trained almost 1,500 police­men, includ­ing non-com­mis­sioned offi­cers, and men­tored police offi­cers at both provin­cial and dis­trict level. 

Mem­bers of the Afghan Nation­al Police (ANP) have been trained to deal with dead­ly impro­vised explo­sive devices and to inter­act with the local pop­u­la­tion in order to build trust and con­fi­dence in the devel­op­ing Afghan Nation­al Secu­ri­ty Forces. 

Lieu­tenant Colonel Andy Had­field, Com­mand­ing Offi­cer of 1 MERCIAN, said: 

“This has been a chal­leng­ing, some­times frus­trat­ing, but sat­is­fy­ing six months. Build­ing a new organ­i­sa­tion always requires patience and com­mit­ment and the men and women of PDATT have demon­strat­ed both. 

“Police devel­op­ment is now mov­ing for­ward apace and we must keep the faith and con­tin­ue to work to hand a safe and secure Afghanistan back to its people.” 

Lieu­tenant Colonel Adam Grif­fiths, Com­mand­ing Offi­cer of 5 SCOTS, said: 

“5 SCOTS has trained hard for this deploy­ment and is look­ing for­ward to the PDATT role and the focus on policing. 

“We take over an ongo­ing and vital task which is evolv­ing and devel­op­ing dai­ly. I sus­pect the next six months will be defined by a peri­od of con­ti­nu­ity as well as con­sol­i­da­tion as we strength­en the capa­bil­i­ty and devel­op the capac­i­ty of the ANP in Helmand.” 

Sol­diers from 1 MERCIAN are due to return to the UK over the next few weeks and have a series of free­dom parades and home­com­ing events planned in the North West in Novem­ber 2010. 

Press release
Min­istry of Defence, UK 

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