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536 GCHQ GOES GLOBAL
a new overall sigint approach for NATO, tried out first in
Operation 'Trail Hammer' in 2006. The objective was to share
sigint seamlessly between GCHQ, the Nimrods of 51 Squadron,
ships with dedicated sigint collection suites like HMS Cornwall,
and forward sigint collectors. A high priority is extending this
sort of support to units like the SAS.ll
Circling overhead in Afghanistan were Nimrod Rl reconnaissance
aircraft. Although the Rl sigint variants of these planes
operate regularly over Afghanistan, the majority of Nimrods
used there were maritime reconnaissance aircraft, originally
designed to search for submarines. Given that Afghanistan is
without benefit of a coastline, or even large stretches of water,
this may seem peculiar. Their presence was required because
until 20lO, Britain lacked effective unmanned reconnaissance
aircraft, or 'drones', of the sort operated by the Americans, since
the type of drone initially purchased by the British, called
'Phoenix', was much inferior, and would not fly in hot weather
or at the altitudes required for operations in Afghanistan. 12
Indeed, when deployed in Iraq in 2003, one drone had been
lost for every six missions flown. As a result, the ageing fleet
of Nimrod maritime reconnaissance aircraft, six of which had
some real-time video surveillance capability, was stretched to
the limit serving as temporary drones and sigint collectors. One
of these planes suffered a calamitous explosion in September
2006, with the loss of sixteen lives. In-flight refuelling of Nimrods
was halted for a period, and then they were all grounded, leaving
troops dangerously exposed.13
Belatedly, the British purchased larger and more effective
foreign-made drones. The most important model was the
Watchkeeper 450, which had an impressive ability to listen in
to Taliban communications. This was an Israeli-made device that
had been used extensively to conduct missile attacks over
Lebanon in 2006, and later over Gaza. For the British, the
Watchkeeper provided much-needed video coverage and also
greatly improved sigint, since at altitude, interception range is
much better. Currently, the elderly Odette intercept system is