Page 12 - RADC 2020

Operation BROADSHARE, China
Lt Col Beales, Joint Force Headquarters (JFHQ)
More than 2,300 people isolated
from UK medical support have been repatriated during the COVID pandemic by specialist UK military teams. Joint Force Headquarters (JFHQ) is Defence’s extremely high readiness crisis response unit, mobilised in response to significant incidents and disasters anywhere in
the world. Earthquakes, hurricanes,
major terrorist attacks, evacuations in
the face of war, and now pandemics. Deployments are not routinely reported, such as the four in January 2020. Working with Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) staff, the Operational Liaison and Reconnaissance Teams (OLRTs) are always ready to respond. OLRTs provide additional capability forward to offer specialist military advice and assist or remove entitled citizens from harm’s way as quickly and safely as possible.
Lt Col Lee Beales, RADC, is currently serving in JFHQ and tells us of his recent deployment in response to the pandemic.
January 2020, JFHQ had just returned from multiple operations around the Middle East. I was based in central London in the FCOs Crisis Management Department as
a liaison for the MOD. JFHQ were settling back into identifying the next worldwide crisis and the HQ was tracking information about the virus in China. Little did I realise I was to become closer to the pandemic than I had anticipated. I received a phone call just before tucking into my morning breakfast with a request to make my way back to the HQ. An aphorism of the HQ is that we are #AlwaysReady.
I joined JFHQ after my sub-unit command where my work was focussed towards medical care in armoured warfare tactical
Preparing
Lt Col L Beales at checkpoint
level. JFHQ was a considerable step change in perspective, looking at the Operational level, but with direct influence from the strategic, while delivering tactical effect.
My deployment to China was going to implement all my weeks of JFHQ training to enact a tactical action for an operational HQ with strategic impact.
By Sunday evening a small team of JFHQ staff and I were on a flight approaching Beijing Capital International Airport. Upon landing, we immediately went to work with the UK embassy staff on how we could support the British nationals in Wuhan. Wuhan is home to more than 11 million people and is considered ground zero of the coronavirus pandemic. Our deployment was to help support the repatriation of British
Lt Col L Beales receiving routine temperature screening in Beijing
Lt Col L Beales completing kit check and preparation
nationals who were stuck there in lockdown. After an intense period of planning, the JFHQ team departed for Wuhan. The aim
was to support the consular team plan
the flight out of the city. There were no routine flights as the region had gone into lockdown, no public transport, no access to the airport, and no cafes or bars open either. A city-wide network of bio-checkpoints had been established and a ban on unauthorised movements to prevent the spread of the virus. It is important to remember that our initial deployment into Wuhan was without the detailed knowledge of this localised virus known by some at the time as Wu-Flu. We worked off the best available information
for the transmission and effects that we knew about. We had strict infection control protocols across the team, including the wearing of FFP3 face masks and hand hygiene routines, however, the advice around social distancing was not as well prescribed at that time.
The planning in Wuhan was led by JFHQ with the consular staff, constant contact was upheld with the embassy in Beijing, the MOD in London, and Strategic Command. Operating under strict Chinese government restrictions, the team worked with the British Embassy and Consulate staff to co- ordinate the evacuation. The logistics from the London end were challenging, trying
to ensure the plane, crew and permissions were in place. This was central to our planning, which was adjusted continuously and refined as the information was updated. At the tactical level, we were rehearsing everything from scripts, to ensure the evacuees were informed, to the routes and equipment we’d need at each location.
10 RADC BULLETIN 2020
COVID