[2] On promotion to colonel in 2005 he was appointed as Assistant Director of Counter Terrorism and United Kingdom Operations at the Ministry of Defence.

[4] Before Panther's Claw, Radford clashed with Lieutenant Colonel Rupert Thorneloe, who argued that it was flawed in concept and that there were not enough British forces to hold the ground.

[5] In January 2010 Radford was made Head of Overseas Operations in the Ministry of Defence and,[3] on promotion to major general in November 2011, he assumed the position of Chief of Staff of the ISAF Joint Command in Kabul, Afghanistan.

[6] He took over as General Officer Force Troops Command in February 2013,[6] and in this capacity he oversaw the operation to provide medical assistance for the Ebola outbreak in West Africa in 2014.

[11][12] Author Toby Harnden has described Radford, during his time as a Brigade commander in Afghanistan, as "a softly spoken, cerebral officer, [with] piercing blue eyes and an understated manner honed during years of operations in Northern Ireland and Iraq...a listener rather than a talker.