14.1  |  Military equipment (post-conflict)

• Brig Inshaw would act as Customer Two “Core Leader” with “the role of

overseeing the lines of development” in consultation with Cdre Eberle, who

would act as the joint Customer Two.

307.  Cdre Eberle stated that the number of PPVs required had been “derived from

consultation with FLCs, PJHQ and within MOD Centre” but there were a number of

“unknowns” that constrained the ability to “achieve a high degree of accuracy” in the

figures. Those included the timeline for the drawdown in Iraq and, for Afghanistan,

the nature of the threat, the UK CONOPS, and the scale and timing of the UK’s

medium‑term engagement.

308.  The paper stated that there were “no alternatives to PPV for the protected

mobility capability requirement within the timeframe under consideration”. It described

tracked light armoured vehicles as “inappropriate due to their posture and the extended

distances that are regularly travelled while on patrol or escort tasks”.

309.  Civilian movements in Iraq were being constrained by the IED threat as even the

Army’s more heavily armed vehicles came under attack.

310.  On 4 November, Sergeant Stuart Gray, Private Paul Lowe and Private Scott

McArdle were killed in a suicide bomb attack at a vehicle check‑point in Fallujah.155

They had been travelling in a Warrior vehicle. An Iraqi interpreter was also killed and

eight soldiers were injured.

311.  On 5 November, Mr David Hayward, FCO Military Liaison Officer, sent a teleletter

to Mr Tom Dodd, Deputy Consul General in Basra, in reply to “a number of problems”

Mr Dodd had raised about policing in MND(SE).156 He wrote:

“You [sic] comment that rigid security rules prevents senior police officers from being

allowed to move freely on the ground is understood. The underlying issue is that

FCO duty of care for all HMG staff currently dictates that military vehicles do not

meet the minimum level of protection required.”

312.  Mr Hayward wrote that they were discussing with the Security Strategy Unit

whether there was any “room for flexibility in application of current policy”. He added:

“However, as you know the duty of care does weigh heavily in terms of the safety of

personnel in Iraq.”

313.  On 8 November, Private Pita Tukutukuwaqa was killed when the Warrior vehicle

in which he was travelling hit a roadside IED south west of Baghdad.157

155  GOV.UK, 6 November 2004, 3 British soldiers killed in Iraq; BBC News, 5 November 2004, Blair tribute

to Black Watch dead.

156  Teleletter Hayward to Dodd, 5 November 2004, ‘Southern Iraq: Civilian Policing’.

157  GOV.UK, 10 November 2004, Private Pita Tukutukuwaqa; BBC News, 9 November 2004, MOD names

soldier killed in Iraq.

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