Operation COBRA BRAVEHEART, Helmand Province, Afghanistan, 2011

Digital photograph by Sergeant Rupert Frere, Royal Logistic Corps, 2011.

Soldiers from B Company, Argyll and Sutherlanders (5 SCOTS), 5th Battalion Royal Regiment of Scotland on operation in the Nahr-e Saraj district of Helmand Province, contesting insurgent firing points and searching for weapon caches. The soldiers carry a scaling ladder and mine detector, vital equipment in the operations in rural Helmand with its mud walled villages and compounds. Ladders were used to cross obstacles and to avoid well trod routes into structures that could be targeted by insurgents with improvised explosive devices (IEDs).