Armoured Vehicles Back From Afghanistan 09.09.13
12Almost 100 military vehicles have arrived back in Britain from Afghanistan.
The armoured patrol vehicles, including 18 Mastiffs and 30 Jackals, were unloaded at the Marchwood Sea Mounting Centre, near Southampton, as the British armed forces scale back their presence in Helmand Province.
Defence Secretary Philip Hammond was at the port to see them being unloaded from the roll-on, roll-off ferry after being transported by sea from the Middle East.
The latest delivery of 94 means that more than 1,000 vehicles and pieces of major equipment have been redeployed from Afghanistan so far.
Mr Hammond said: "Having deployed thousands of vehicles and pieces of equipment to Afghanistan over the last 12 years we are making good progress in bringing them home as we near the end of combat operations in December 2014.
"A huge amount of work goes into returning our equipment and vehicles from Helmand, so I'm pleased with the progress we have made so far."
The British armoured vehicles were either flown from Camp Bastion or driven overland through Pakistan before being loaded on to the giant ferry.
The ferry spent more than four weeks at sea, navigating through the Gulf of Oman, along the coast of Yemen, across the Red Sea and through the Suez Canal, before sailing through the Mediterranean, past Gibraltar and finally heading for UK shores.
So far more than 1,080 vehicles and pieces of major equipment have been redeployed to the UK, alongside 1,570 containers of materiel from Afghanistan.
Under current plans around 3,345 vehicles or items of equipment and around 5,500 containers of materiel will be returned by the conclusion of the British combat mission in Afghanistan at the end of 2014, the MoD said.
The Defence Secretary added: "The redeployment of equipment from Afghanistan is a major logistical challenge, but I am confident military planners are up to the task and we are on schedule to bring home the vast array of equipment we have deployed there."