Operation Herrick was the operational name for the British Armed Forces' operations during the War in Afghanistan, from 2002 to the end of combat operations in 2014. It consisted of the British contribution to the multinational NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) mission for the purposes of local security, training and development, and support to the American-led Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) counterterrorism mission. After years in the field, Operation Herrick increased in size and breadth to match ISAF's growing geographical intervention in Afghanistan: British troops numbered 9,500 at its peak in 2010–2012. The operation has also been referred to as the Fourth Anglo-Afghan War.
Initially, the operation consisted mainly of security in Kabul and training of the Afghan National Army until it grew into a battalion when British troops took over the PRT for northern Afghanistan. As of 2004, there were some 400 British personnel in Afghanistan, rising to 900 in 2005. With the expansion of ISAF operations, over 3,000 British troops were deployed to the volatile, heroin-rich province of Helmand in southern Afghanistan from April 2006 to lead the local PRT, with Britain also on a leading role in counternarcotics. Intended to be a civilian reconstruction mission, British troops were unexpectedly forced to engage in heavy combat with Taliban militants who fiercely resisted their presence, fueled in part by local resentment from colonial-era conflict. Heavy fighting in the summer of 2006 during the Siege of Sangin was described as the fiercest the British army had faced since the Korean War. While there had only been five British fatalities in Afghanistan up until that point, in 2006 alone this number escalated to 39 deaths and kept increasing annually, peaking at over one hundred each in 2009 and 2010. Troop numbers during Operation Herrick rose to 8,000 in 2008 and later at over 9,000.
The UK began withdrawing throughout 2013, continuing until the last of its combat troops left Afghanistan on 27 October 2014. Following this, British military operations in Afghanistan focused on training as part of Operation Toral, the UK's contribution to the NATO Resolute Support Mission, which continued until the ultimate countrywide 2021 Taliban victory after the defeat of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. A total of 454 British personnel had died on operations in Afghanistan from 2002 to 2014, outnumbering the amount killed during the Iraq and Falklands wars. While British involvement in Afghanistan had solid support politically and from the public, there was criticism for strategic military failures of the Helmand campaign, its resulting death toll, and the lacklustre "war on opium".
Operation Herrick superseded two previous efforts in Afghanistan which began in 2001: the first of these was Operation Veritas, an offensive combat operation of support during the United States invasion of Afghanistan that began in October 2001 and ended in July 2002, with the last major action being a sweep in east Afghanistan by 1,700 Royal Marines during Operation Jacana. The second was Operation Fingal, a peacekeeping mission for safety and security in Kabul that Britain along with nineteen other countries contributed to. Led by Major General John McColl, the UK was for its initial six months the leading ISAF force, with a contribution of 2,000 troops in the mission. Command was subsequently transferred to NATO ally Turkey as of June 2002, and the British contingent was scaled back to 300. After this point, all British combat operations in Afghanistan were conducted under Operation Herrick. Overall, there had been one British casualty before Herrick, namely Lance Corporal Darren George who suffered an accidental death during a security patrol caused by another British soldier.
The goals of the UK and its allies in Afghanistan, as set in the UN mandate, was the development of Afghan institutions and protection of it and the local populace from Taliban insurgents, as well as ensuring that al-Qaeda do not regain a foothold in the country for the purpose of terrorism against Britain and other countries. In addition, then Prime Minister Tony Blair also cited the farming of opium, with 90% of heroin drugs in Britain's streets originating from Afghanistan, which Blair cited as another reason for supporting the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.
It was the UK Government's position that the UK could not disengage from Afghanistan and so retained an active military presence until December 2014 (particularly Helmand province) because of the continued terrorist threat facing Britain and the world. Building a strong Afghan state is a long and difficult task. The Liberal–Conservative coalition government (May 2010 – May 2015) declared that Afghanistan was the UK's top foreign policy priority.
Despite being the UK's largest operational military deployment as of 2008, the BBC described the operation in Iraq at the time as "by far the most high profile UK commitment overseas".
Between 2002 and 2003, the primary component of Herrick remained the 300 personnel providing security in Kabul and training to the new Afghan National Army (ANA). In mid-2003, the operation became battalion strength when a provincial reconstruction team (PRT) was established in Mazari Sharif and in Maymana. The UK also provided a rapid reaction force for the area.
Overall command of the PRTs was transferred to ISAF in 2004. Sweden and Norway took over these PRTs in 2005 and 2006 respectively to allow the UK to focus on south Afghanistan. In early 2006, the NATO Headquarters Allied Rapid Reaction Corps (ARRC) became the headquarters of ISAF for a year. The attached British infantry and signals personnel raised the number of troops based in Kabul to 1,300.
In 2004, a detachment of six Royal Air Force fighters from Joint Force Harrier was based at Kandahar Airfield to support American OEF forces there. A planned withdrawal in mid-2006 was postponed to provide air support for the new ISAF expansion across the south. The force was later reinforced with more Harriers and an RAF Regiment squadron. The Harriers were withdrawn in 2009 and replaced by a Panavia Tornado GR4 squadron on rotation.
On 2 September 2006, a Hawker Siddeley Nimrod MR2 patrol aircraft, serial number XV230 supporting Canadian forces in Operation Medusa crashed near Kandahar, killing all 14 service members aboard. The cause was related to fuel lines.
4 more Harrier GR9s were committed in May 2007 bringing them to a total of eleven, along with an extra C130 transport plane and four Westland Sea Kings from the Fleet Air Arm. Harriers have been succeeded by Tornados. Merlin and Chinook helicopters are also based there.
The majority of aircraft deployed for Herrick were based at Kandahar.
In January 2006, Defence Secretary John Reid announced the UK would send a PRT with several thousand personnel to Helmand, in southern Afghanistan, for at least three years. This had been planned as part of the gradual expansion of ISAF's area of responsibility from the Kabul region to the rest of Afghanistan. An initial strength of 5,700 personnel in Afghanistan was planned, which would stabilise to around 4,500 for the rest of the deployment.
The move was to be a coordinated effort with other NATO countries to relieve the predominantly American OEF presence in the south. To this end, the Netherlands and Canada would lead similar deployments in Oruzgan and Kandahar respectively. Several other countries would support this move with troops. In the case of Helmand, Denmark sent 750 troops while Estonia would increase their Helmand force to 150 soldiers, altogether called Task Force Helmand.
Helmand was a volatile region with local conflicts over drugs and land, and where the Afghan army were "non-existent". Local Taliban figures voiced opposition to the incoming British force and pledged to resist it. Ashraf Ghani, the Kabul University chancellor at the time, reportedly told a British planner in 2005 that there could be no worse peacekeeping force sent to Helmand than the UK, due to local sensitivity and its proximity to the site of the 1880 Battle of Maiwand, predicting a "bloodbath" as a result. Locals and Taliban propaganda called the British presence in Helmand the 'Fourth Anglo-Afghan War', viewing it as colonial Brits returning with "vengenance" for Victorian era defeats. In 2009, MP Bernard Jenkin, during a parliamentary debate on Afghanistan and Pakistan, described the 2006 deployment to Helmand as "one of the most ill-judged and ill-conceived military deployments of modern decades".