The counterinsurgency operations conducted by the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan use a number of new weapon systems. Yet there is room for technologies that are long in the tooth—military working dogs (MWD). Although used in combat for centuries, the profile of military working dogs has risen in recent years. The U.S. began to train dogs in 2005 to work off-leash to detect explosives. In May, a Belgian Malinois named Cairo was involved in Operation Neptune Spear, the raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan, that killed Osama bin Laden.

Camp Bastion's main entry point (MEP) is, in effect, the front door for ground admission to NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) mission in Helmand Province. Here, the imperatives of force protection and base security meet, sometimes conflict with, and ultimately reinforce the wider purpose of the coalition mission. It may seem to be a dichotomy, but the MEP underlines the fact that security rises when trust is built—and vice versa.

Sometimes, having a combat capability isn't enough: operating personnel have to become marketing teams and sell their services to comrades and allies. This is the lesson learned by the Royal Navy's tiny Sea King Airborne Surveillance and Control detachment in Afghanistan. The Westland-built Mk. 7 version of the Sikorsky helicopter, known by the acronym Skasac—and nicknamed “Bagger” for its large radome that hangs from the side in flight—has been in theater for more than two years, but developing an informed user base took time.