BRITAIN is to deploy its biggest contingent of paratroopers and special forces since the second world war in a bid to crush the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Ministers are to send 3,000 paratroopers, including the entire Parachute Regiment, to southern Afghanistan in the spring, as well as trebling the number of special forces in the country.

It will be the first time in the regiment’s history that all four para battalions, including its reservists, have fought together on the same battlefield. The number of UK special forces personnel will rise to more than 800 and will include the bulk of the Special Forces Support Group, which is largely comprised of paratroopers.

The deployment comes amid fears that the Taliban are likely to regroup over the winter and retake terrain from weaker Afghan forces unable to hold their positions.

It has also emerged that the Ministry of Defence (MoD) is considering ways in which private security companies could bolster frontline troops in war zones such as Afghanistan. Options include “defensive” tasks such as guarding military bases, helping to escort convoys, supplying frontline soldiers and transporting troops.

Gordon Brown is expected to signal a renewed emphasis on Afghanistan next week when he announces that local forces have officially taken control of southern Iraq. The number of UK troops in the country is expected to be cut from the current 5,000, freeing resources for deployment in Afghanistan.

Brown is expected to commit British troops to Helmand province until at least 2010, although senior officers privately expect to be there much longer. “The aim is for special forces to target the Taliban before they cause problems, while the paras provide security for reconstruction to get going in earnest,” one officer said.

The plan will see the current force of 7,000 British troops return from Afghanistan and a total of 8,000 sent out, bringing together the army’s most battle-hardened elite. Officers admit that, with 81 killed and more than 250 wounded, the Taliban have provided some of the fiercest resistance seen since the Korean war.

UK special forces will also concentrate for the first time solely on southern Helmand and will be expected not only to target the Taliban but also the drug barons funding them. The RAF will increase the number of aircraft in the country, adding Tornado and Typhoon ground attack planes to its existing Harrier squadrons.

A group of high-level civil servants has been set up to investigate the possibility of hiring private contractors to perform defensive duties in warzones. The group, which is being lead by Peter January of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and includes high-ranking officials from the MoD and the Department for International Development, has been consulting experts from the private sector for some months.

Andy Bearpark, director-general of the British Association of Private Security Companies, said he was in “constant contact” with both the MoD and the Foreign Office over what postconflict resolution work its members could carry out.

“The British military is getting more stretched, and so it makes sense to explore ways of utilising the skills of private security companies,” he said.

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