From April 2020, the CSF began helping plan, construct and staff several temporary critical care hospitals across the UK and also provided drivers and call handlers to reinforce ambulance services.

[6] Other support provided by the armed forces included the testing of the NHS' contact tracing phone application, NHS Test and Trace, the manufacturing of personal protective equipment (PPE), the creation of disinfectants, including the Virusend formula,[7] and countering COVID-19 misinformation.

[11] Media outlets began speculating the extent of the military's involvement, with one report from Sky News claiming troops may be used to "help cope with the breakdown of civil society",[12] whilst another, from The Times, claimed prisons may need to be staffed by military personnel if prison staff became ill.[13] These reports caused some public alarm which prompted Defence Secretary Ben Wallace to publicly dismiss the stories as "fictional" and urge caution.

[1] On 19 March 2020, the Ministry of Defence announced the formation of the COVID Support Force as part of its measures to help tackle the Coronavirus outbreak.

[16] The COVID Support Force reported to the Standing Joint Commander (UK) Major General Tyrone Urch at Aldershot.

[18] On 20 March 2020, The Telegraph reported General Sir Nick Carter had ordered the armed forces to prepare for a "six month operation".

[5] The armed forces had previously been involved in repatriation flights of British and EU citizens in affected areas, such as China, Japan and Cuba.

[1] The British military first supported the COVID-19 response on 31 January 2020, when RAF Brize Norton and defence medics assisted with the first COVID-19 repatriation flight from Wuhan.

[1] On 15 March 2020, the Royal Air Force responded to its first MACA request to airlift a critically ill COVID-19 patient from the Isles of Scilly to Newquay Airport using a Boeing Chinook helicopter.

[48] Morgues have also been established, including within disused RAF hangars, with the bodies transported via rental vans driven by military personnel.

[55] The first reported ATF medical evacuation took place on 22 April 2020 and involved a Puma helicopter transporting a critically ill COVID-19 patient from the Isle of Arran to a hospital in Kilmarnock.

[57] The global demand for personal protective equipment (PPE) reached unprecedented levels during the pandemic and, initially, the UK experienced a shortage of supply.

[62] Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S) helped with sourcing and quality assurance testing, including for the Cabinet Office and the Department for Health and Social Care,[25] whilst specialist CBRN instructors from the British Army helped with fit testing, including within four Scottish hospitals.

[25] In April 2020, 3rd Battalion, Royal Welsh helped deliver two large batches of PPE flown in from Cambodia and China.

[82] In November 2020, as a second national lockdown was imposed in England, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that the military would be assisting with mass COVID-19 testing in Liverpool as a pilot scheme for what may become "a powerful new weapon" deployed across the country against COVID-19.

[83] These units were later awarded the Freedom of Liverpool and commemorative challenge coins for their help in lowering infection rates from 680 per 100,000 people to less than 100.

[87] In December 2020, Medway in Kent became the third location to undergo mass testing with 175 military personnel involved, including from 35 Engineer Regiment.

[89] On Christmas Day in 2020, 1,100 military personnel were deployed to deliver COVID-19 testing kits to around 4,000 hauliers waiting in Kent after France closed its border with the UK due to COVID-19.

[96] On 9 January 2021, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that the British Army would be assisting with the national COVID-19 vaccine rollout.

In a televised statement, the Prime Minister explained that the army would be helping reach a goal for over 1,000 GP-led sites in England offering "hundreds of thousands" of vaccinations each day by 15 January.

[6] In December 2021, 750 military personnel were made available to support the NHS, the Department of Health and Social Care and the Scottish Government in response to rising cases caused by the Omicron variant.

[100] On 18 March 2020, scientists from the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) began providing hazard assessment, microbiological testing and operational analysis support to the Government dealing with COVID-19.

On 12 April 2020, during the pandemic's first wave, the COVID Support Force had responded to 76 requests for assistance from government ministries with 2,680 personnel deployed from a total of 23,000 on standby.

[106] During the same month, Chief of the Defence Staff General Sir Nick Carter described the operation as the "single greatest logistic challenge" he had come across.

[1] Following a Freedom Of Information (FOI) request in April 2021 to the Ministry of Defence, it was stated that Operation Rescript was under consideration for medallic reward by the Cabinet Office.