Ex-Army MP condemns plan for year-long Afghanistan tours

Brigadier Ed Davis, commander of Task Force Helmand, suggested that tours for some military units could be lengthened to end the “constant churn” of personnel during the crucial withdrawal period.

He stressed that most of those affected would be specialist troops involved in intelligence and the mentoring of Afghan forces, rather than soldiers on the front line.

But Barnsley Central MP Dan Jarvis, a former Army Major who served in Afghanistan, said troops were mentally and physically tired out after six months.

“Anyone who has served on the front line in Afghanistan knows that after six months you are mentally and physically exhausted,” he said. “It is neither reasonable nor sustainable to expect our troops to continue engaging in combat operations beyond the six-month point.

“If [Defence Secretary Liam Fox] was to enact this proposal it would be a measure of sheer desperation on the part of the MoD and it would be a decision being made by leaders who have not served on the front line in the Afghan desert.”

His concerns were echoed by Shadow Defence Secretary Jim Murphy. He said: “People would be shocked if, at the time some servicemen and women are being made compulsorily redundant, their colleagues are asked to serve longer tours in one of the most dangerous places in the world.

“Ministers have repeatedly said that their cuts programme will not impact on the front line in Afghanistan and the country will expect the Government to keep its promises. Any decision must be based on military advice and not a consequence of this Government’s rushed deficit reduction plan.”

The controversy erupted after Brigadier Davis, of 3 Commando Brigade Royal Marines, floated the idea of longer tours in a newspaper interview.

He said: “The constant churn of people with whom you have really strong relationships is hard, so I think you need to reduce that by having people in theatre for longer. I suspect over time we’ll see these changes and a larger percentage of people doing longer tours. We are looking at nine to 12 months.

“When you are mentoring, when you are not in charge, you are not leading, you’re very much leading from behind. I am talking about a number of groups, some of the specialists, the mentor teams, advisory mentor teams, and maybe some of the other functions we might be looking at extending like intelligence. This is because the ‘knowledge depth’ is so great, it makes sense to have people here a bit longer.”

The proposed lengthened tours of duty would come as combat operations in Afghanistan are wound down in 2014.

After 10 years of UK operations, David Cameron is keen to offer voters signs of progress and a clear exit strategy and recently announced the withdrawal of 450 of the nation’s 9,500 troops.

Michael O’Neill, the head of the Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) in Helmand, said the proposals made good sense.

“We are at a critical time and it is extremely important that we do have this continuity. Most of the people at the PRT are doing more than six months, up to a year, some have extended to 18 months.

“We find this is very helpful in building up relationships with Afghan partners and also in seeing through projects.”

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: “The MoD is always examining how best to generate and sustain our armed forces, including by looking at the length of tours and the intervals between them. However the vast majority of personnel serve six-month tours and there are no current plans to change this.”

Mr Jarvis said: “Someone has to stand up for our troops and for their families. Few serving soldiers would want to stay beyond their six month tour.

“The families of our soldiers certainly wouldn’t want their loved ones to be absent any longer than they currently are.”