The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
365.
The ISD for 80
vehicles was November 2005 and the development of an
up‑armoured
appliqué kit that could provide protection levels of up […] for
Snatch 2 was
to be
complete by September 2005.
366.
The business
case stated that the operational analysis on Snatch had
been
conducted
by DSTL and that the cheapest options to meet the Snatch 2 and
Vector
protection
requirements were to upgrade remaining Snatch 1 vehicles to Snatch
2 or
a potentially
new Snatch 3 variant.
367.
While no work
had been done to understand the proportion of the fleet
that
required
higher levels of protection, a “sensitivity analysis” had confirmed
that evolving
the Snatch
model was the most cost‑effective method of achieving better
protection.
Further
work would be done to understand the number of upgrades needed and
would
be reported
when the Vector business case was submitted.
368.
The business
case to convert the remaining 312 Snatch 1/1.5 vehicles to Snatch
2
standard
was approved by the Investment Approvals Board (IAB) on 7
July.184
369.
The IAB’s
approval note said that, in early 2004, Mr Nick Bennett,
Director
General
(Scrutiny & Analysis) (DG(S&A)), met a DEC(SP) official and
agreed a strategy
for
“establishing the balance between Snatch 2 and Vector numbers
around which a
procurement
route was to be determined”. The note said that that work had not
been
done,
“presumably due to the Operational Emergency approach” taken to the
14 April
2004
submission, “which indicated that the balance of investment
operational analysis
work would
be completed to inform the follow‑on submission. This was also not
done”.
370.
The note
stated that Mr Nick Barnett, DG(S&A) between July 2005 and
September
2005,
wanted reassurance that, in parallel with any other procurement
action for the
second
batch of conversions to Snatch 2, the balance of investment work on
Vector and
Snatch 2
numbers would “be taken forward before long”.
371.
The work that
concentrated on the Type B PPV capability necessary to procure
the
Vector
vehicle became known as Project Vector.
372.
The business
case for the first tranche of vehicles was submitted on 3 March
2006
and is
addressed later in this Section.
373.
Lord Drayson,
who had become Parliamentary Under‑Secretary of State
and
Minister
for Defence Procurement in May 2005, visited Iraq from 6 to 8
July.185
374.
The report of
his visit stated that feedback on equipment was generally
positive
but “a
number of issues” were raised when he spoke to troops from 12
Mechanised
Brigade.
Those included the long wait for Warrior upgrades and that “the
protection of
184
Minute
SIT‑IAB Sec 1d to DEC(S), 7 July 2005, ‘SNATCH 2: Review Note –
Approval Note
(IAB Sec 1406)’.
185
Note
APS/Minister(DP) to DJC Iraq(Pol), 13 July 2005, ‘Minister(DP)
visit to Iraq: 6‑8 July 2005’.
64