The SAS is targetting Taliban insurgents and Afghan smugglers in the Helmand desert using Royal Navy technology designed to hunt down Soviet submarines, it can be disclosed.
A Sea King airborne surveillance and control (Skasac) helicopter hovers above Camp Bastion
Using a sack-like device with which helicopters carry the radar equipment, the Sea King airborne surveillance and control (Skasac) can spot camel trains, pickup trucks and insurgents on foot dozens of miles away.
The Navy observers guide SAS troops across the desert to Taliban targets. In one operation, special forces intercepted a Toyota pickup truck that had heroin worth £6.45 million hidden in a false bottom. In another, troopers performed a pincer interception on a speeding Taliban vehicle, killing four insurgents.
"We stop drugs and money going out and troops and guns coming in," said Lt-Cdr Kevin Drodge, senior pilot of 854 Naval Air Squadron. "We think of the desert as the sea and we are back in our own environment. We strangle the insurgency lifelines, dramatically reducing their re-supply capability and crippling their efforts on the front line."
By tracking pickup trucks and camel trains, the Navy team of three Sea King helicopters and 43 servicemen, including engineers and analysts, have produced a map made up of millions of dots that shows the highways across the desert. The lines show 12 main routes, most going to Pakistan but at least four heading into Iran.
In their main role of helping special forces intercept the Taliban, the Navy crew are given a rough location and description of a target then guide SAS troops in off-road vehicles to intercept.
They can also call in US Marines helicopters to land in front of the SAS vehicles and set up a vehicle block.
"At times in the back the guys can get pretty excited when they are in the final stages of guiding in the ground assault force for the interception," said one of the Navy analysts. "The SAS lads can get pretty excited when they are close."
In one operation the SAS detained two insurgents who were experts in improvised explosive devices and were found with bombing equipment.
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