Going in: Black Watch troops deploy from a Chinook helicopter in a picture taken last month ahead of Operation Panther's Claw. Photo from The Daily MailAmerican Military Colossus Arrives In A Fleet Of Helicopters Which British Lack -- The Telegraph
When US Marines air assaulted into a notorious Taliban stronghold in the south of Helmand Province - far south of positions the British have struggled to hold for three years - they arrived in a fleet of Chinook and Black Hawk helicopters.
Americans now occupy the ramshackle grounds of a 300-year-old fort in Khan Neshin, on a bend of the Helmand River Valley known as the Fishhook.
It is far beyond anywhere their British allies ever managed to control; the Taliban's black-turbaned fighters are nowhere to be seen, although none of the battle-hardened Americans - part of a force which has flooded into Helmand with the US surge - expects them to stay quiet for long.
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Taliban Heroin Factory Destroyed In Night Assault -- The Independent
Keen to focus on results rather than the body count, the MoD revealed how a dramatic British night-time assault against a Taliban stronghold in Helmand province has uncovered a large factory set to produce hundreds of kilograms of heroin.
Six helicopters took 140 troops from the 3rd Battalion the Royal Regiment of Scotland deep into enemy-held territory – Babiji, north of Lashkar Gah. Within hours the soldiers discovered a drugs factory with 750kg of a base chemical used to create heroin and 5kg of a morphine derivative. Profits from the heroin would have been used to buy weapons, according to the MoD. Afghan police were brought in and the drugs were destroyed on the spot.
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My Comment: In both operations, helicopters were essential to surprising the enemy and attaining the mission's objectives. The British have been in this part of Afghanistan for the past few years .... it is clear that having the equipment to conduct operations is now helping them significantly in surprising and confronting the Taliban.