The 7th Armoured Brigade of the British Army will be deployed in Afghanistan 1107131.

Defence & Security News - United Kingdom

As the Prime Minister announced in December 2012, the UK’s conventional force levels in Afghanistan will draw down to around 5,200 by the end of 2013, from the current level of around 7,900.

As part of this drawdown, there will be around 6,000 personnel in Afghanistan from Autumn 2013. However, this figure may fluctuate and occasionally exceed this total due to ‘relief-in-place’ (where all or part of a unit is replaced in an area by an incoming unit) and additional surges into theatre.

Around half of these units will form Task Force Helmand under the command of 7th Armoured Brigade. The remainder will deploy within Helmand province and also to other locations in Afghanistan, particularly Kandahar and Kabul, as part of the UK’s overall contribution.

In addition to the list of formed units, individual augmentees from each of the Services will continue to deploy as part of this integrated force package. In total MOD expects around 1,119 individual augmentees to deploy on operations.

These will be comprised of 246 Royal Navy personnel, 370 Army personnel and 503 Royal Air Force personnel. The Royal Air Force currently provides the command element of Headquarters Joint Force Support (Afghanistan), with the wider headquarters manned by individual augmentees from all three Services. 101 Logistic Brigade will deploy in November to take on this role.

The Brigade still wears the famous 'Desert Rat' flash on its uniform - this originates from the North African campaign when the 7th Armoured Division adopted the insignia and nickname of the 'Desert Rats'. In 1959 the 7th Armoured Division was disbanded, but the history and name was carried on by the 7th Armoured Brigade.