Historically there has always been a civilian aspect to military campaigns, be it political advisers during the Napoleonic Wars or civilian research and scientific support during World War Two. Today's campaign in Afghanistan is no different.
The military continues to benefit from the expertise of civil servants working in various locations throughout Helmand, as does the Afghan population.
Normally based at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory near Salisbury in Wiltshire, Ross Jones is Deputy Scientific Adviser in Helmand. Together with his counterpart based within Joint Force Support, he provides his military colleagues with rigorous scientific answers to problems that they may be having with some of the highly technical equipment being used to fight the enemy. He explained:
"My job is to help the military do their job better, safer, and more efficiently. Most of my time is spent dealing with any sort of scientific or technical problem encountered by the military guys out here.
"Sometimes their knowledge, training or capability will not be enough to provide a solution. That's where I come in. I help explain the reality of the situation. How they decide to employ that is their decision.
"My expertise is vehicle armour, but having worked in MOD Main Building for three years before I came out here, I was exposed to a wider range of research areas. This breadth has served me well. I now deal with everything from armour to ISTAR [Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition, and Reconnaissance], to comms, to explosives.
"My job is to help the military do their job better, safer, and more efficiently. Most of my time is spent dealing with any sort of scientific or technical problem encountered by the military guys out here."
Ross Jones
"Sometimes it might be that the troops operating technical operating systems understand how the kit works but they don't understand the intricacies of the different platforms.
"To take a simple analogy, they want to know how to make a PC 'talk to' a MAC computer. There are subtle complexities about these things that cannot be understood unless I dig into the detail."
Ross cites one of the most important aspects of his job as having the ability to interact with those around him. Without that personal touch he says that his work would have less effect. He continues:
"The only way to be effective in theatre is by engaging with the soldiers. They may not always think that there is a problem but it is up to me to identify it or resolve it before it becomes a problem.
"You cannot do that over the phone or by email. The only way you achieve that effect is by being in the same place as the people you are helping.
"It could be an innocuous comment or an overheard conversation but that is where I can add value. If I wasn't in theatre I wouldn't be able to do that and provide an immediate answer.
"The longer that I have been here, the more the soldiers realise I am able to offer them solutions. It wasn't like this at the start though; I had to prove my value to them!
"It could also be that I am inquisitive and I probe into areas that could be better utilised or could be better understood. All that matters to me is that I am helping the overall effort."
With so many questions on a variety of topics, Ross has to call on the expertise of others as well. He is the soldiers' single point of contact and it is Ross who does all the leg work to get the answers for them:
"Obviously I cannot answer every question that comes along. I act as the UK link, so that when there are deep technical questions that I cannot understand I can reach back to the UK and they can provide that level of support.
"Similarly, the MOD's Science and Technology section in the UK calls on me for my professional opinion when we are trialling new equipment.
"We obviously want to ensure that the kit will actually do the job for which it is intended, so I help conduct the trials and feed back the results.
"I know from experience that it is sometimes tricky to replicate Afghan conditions in the UK so the only way to do it is to do the tests here.
"Testing new kit is one of the better parts of my job but I gain more satisfaction from identifying areas of improvement on vehicles damaged by IEDs.
"It is here where I can see a direct correlation between my work out here and the wider Afghan campaign. When I examine such vehicles I try to identify areas where the explosion has damaged the vehicle in a way that wasn't expected.
"If I can spot room for improvement which will ultimately save a soldier's life then I would consider that to be justification itself for my being out here."
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