Sniffing for bombs in Bastion

Along with searching vehicles entering Camp Bastion and some of the Forward Operating Bases, the search dogs deployed with Camp Bastion's Military Dog Support Unit are used for checking routes that convoys and patrols are to pass along.

They are looking for mines, Improvised Explosive Devices, or any other explosive ordnance intended to kill. But they don't go alone. Their handlers go with them, interpreting the dog's reactions.

Walking ahead of the convoys, vulnerable to what ever may lies ahead, is a dangerous job. But 20 year old Arms Explosive Search Dog Handler, Lance Corporal Adam Milliken, from 102 Military Working Dog Support Unit, isn't fazed:

"When you're actively searching, you're the point man, the very front man," he says. "But to be honest I'm quite happy up there cause I've got full confidence in my dog. If I know my dogs got anything, I'd rather be there than someone else, so I'm quite happy to be in the front. I wouldn't have it any other way.

"The dog is always the troops' favourite piece of kit because they've seen the dogs work and they trust the dogs implicitly, as do I. A lot of patrols won't be happy to go through vulnerable points unless the dog's been there. A lot of convoys insist on search dogs being used in certain areas, for safe passage through the area."

Sparky is LCpl Milliken's dog, and - "He's a good lad." He is one of the 21 dogs currently deployed by the British Armed Forces to Afghanistan, looked after by 17 handlers.

Sgt Kev Gavin, who was temporarily heading up Bastion's dog support unit explains the dogs' role:

"Dogs can't speak to you and tell you what it is they have found. So we train them very specifically to find one thing: weapons or explosives."

A constant train of trucks arrive at Camp Bastion's front gate. The vehicles are brining in fuel, water, food and other supplies.

The Spaniels, used as search dogs for the breed's natural skill, are also used for checking aircraft coming into Bastion as well as checking for anything being smuggled out, and for spot checks being carried on around the camp, particularly in the local contractors' areas. Thankfully Sgt Gavin adds, nothing big has ever been found.

On the day of my visit five fuel tankers are in the search bays at the front gate and Lcpl Miliken and Sparky are called into action. The drivers are asked to leave the vehicles and are searched with metal detectors. The vehicles are searched by the dogs and by hand.

With Lcpl Miliken following, Sparky bounces along the narrow search bay, sniffing around the trucks, and then he leaps into the driver's cabin:

"We let the dog have a free search," says Lcpl Miliken. "He'll run to wherever he sniffs something, while giving you more distance from any explosives. Then we do a systematic search inside and out, searching for explosives and weapons."

Colour Sergeant Andy Galler, the Officer Commanding the Front Gate, said:

"It's more than a cursory look. The dogs are brilliant things, they speed up the process enormously and have the capacity to search and find things we don't have."

Corporal Charlie Bates, another Arms and Explosive search dog handler deployed to Bastion adds:

"If the dogs are missing anything, it's not there to be found. A dog will search a vehicle three times faster than a human and get to places humans can't. But we don't just rely on the dog. We understand what we're looking for, indicators of something out of the ordinary. We gauge drivers' reactions and look for associate materials like battery packs, wires, things that could be carried that you wouldn't normally expect.

"As we do the searches we explain through interpreters what we're doing and most of the time the drivers are happy and understand why we do it."

Although the searches can be intrusive, the handlers do their utmost to explain the process and respect local sensitivity. Corporal Bates explains:

"Most locals coming through now know the drill. We stress if you've got any food take it out, dogs being dogs will snatch it, and we say take any religious items out too. It's just politeness really, we find it's much easier to take the softly softly approach."

The dog searches are integral to building mutual trust and security between the base and the Afghan contractors. But the team don't just sit in Bastion:

"Where we come into our own is in the Forward Operating Bases," says Corporal Bates, "providing increased force protection on route searches and foot patrols. It gives the lads more confidence to know the dogs have searched an area and that there are no devices there."

Cpl Bates spent seven weeks in a Forward Operating Base with his search dog Brandy supporting troops there by searching convoy and foot patrol routes and compounds, looking for munitions and Improvised Explosive Devices:

"I go out with the dog ahead of the convoys in places. If there are any trip wires or devices, if it goes off, I'm the point man, up front."

But like Lcpl Miliken, it's a position he is happy to be in:

"It's part and parcel of the job, and I could be saving people's lives."