CREATION OF SECURE
ACCOMMODATION

Camp Hart

Background

Camp Hart was first established in January 2010 after winning a contract for a European diplomatic organization’s police training unit. Before that Hart rented a Villa in the town centre which acted as the administrative hub for our contracts and task organisations around the country. It was a wise move as in 2011 President Karzai issued decree 62 which ordered PSCs to be have their business hubs outside of the main populated areas in an attempt to protect the civilian population in the event of an Insurgent attack.

Hart is well positioned at Camp Hart. Camp Hart is the administrative hub for all operations in Afghanistan – it provides flowdown of Finance, Logistics support and personnel in and out of the country and is home to the CMT. Camp Hart has the infrastructure to be a Secure Hotel for clients and we have carried out HEAT and Driving courses at Camp Hart on many occasions.

Challenges We’ve Faced

The defences at Camp Hart have grown in direct proportion to the threat against PSCs in Kabul. In 2013 Camp Pinnacle which is approximately 600 metres to the east of Camp Hart was hit by a massive SVBIED and several expats and local/OCN staff were killed in a Complex attack in the early hours – this was one of the first attacks against a foreign compound and forced Hart to re-think its stance and defensive measures.

All outer walls were reinforced and new sentry positions were built. The Entry Point airlock was improved to a very high standard, however, in November 2014 the Taliban found a weakness and detonated a very large SVBIED against our northern wall and two Taliban entered the compound. Although the Taliban were very quickly neutralised, a massive amount of damage had been done to our northern defences. Together we had secured the wall within 2 hours of the breach and remained operationally effective throughout.

The Camp Hart defences were once again improved and today we have an extremely well defended location capable of withstanding most enemy actions. We have an outer Guard of Local Nationals, a Local National QRF, an OCN Inner Guard and QRF and a 24 hour duty Officer to oversee all Camp Security.

Outcome

The Camp is well organised and very well defended. It has excellent facilities including two Gymnasiums, a live firing range, a CPO Training range and drills area, a Volleyball pitch and classroom. The majority of rooms within Camp Hart are ‘Safe Rooms’ capable of being locked from the inside with thick metal doors and no windows to act as survival areas in the case of an enemy infiltration. We have extensive CCTV coverage in all areas of Camp and the surrounding countryside; this is all monitored from our 24 hour operations room. We have well-rehearsed and detailed Camp defence plans and our Local QRF patrol the local areas to help prevent an assault on the Camp. Our defensive plans for vehicle movement around Camp and on all approaches is very well organised and secure.