Operation Slipper – ADF deploys to Afghanistan
According to the Department of Veterans' Affairs, 10 Australians were among the almost 3,000 people killed in the 11 September 2001 attacks. Australia invoked the ANZUS Treaty on 14 September, the first and only time it has been used. The ADF established Operation Slipper on 11 October 2001, Australia's first military operation of the war in Afghanistan.
On 17 October 2001, Prime Minister John Howard announced the forces Australia would provide to the international coalition against terrorism: a special forces detachment, two P-3 maritime aircraft, two B707 tankers, a naval task group, four F/A-18 aircraft and frigates. He said: "The total number of deployed personnel will be about 1550 when all our forces are committed." The statement also said the deployment had been authorised by the National Security Committee and that the Opposition Leader supported it.
The Special Forces Task Group, about 150 personnel drawn mostly from the Special Air Service Regiment, deployed on 22 October 2001 after a farewell at Campbell Barracks in Perth. DVA records that Sergeant Andrew Russell (SASR) died in February 2002 when a vehicle hit a presumed anti-vehicle mine near Kandahar, making him the first Australian killed in the war. In late November 2002, Australia announced that the third SAS rotation would begin to withdraw. Operation Slipper formally ended when the ISAF mandate concluded in December 2014.
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