14.1 |
Military equipment (post-conflict)
693.
On 9 February,
Private Luke Daniel Simpson was killed when his patrol
vehicle
hit a
roadside IED.367
Private
Simpson had been driving the lead vehicle in a convoy
of three
Snatch Land Rovers in Basra.
694.
Lord Drayson
visited Iraq on 8 March and discussed various equipment
issues
in theatre,
including force protection.368
The report
of his visit stated that “the overall
opinion” on
Mastiff and Bulldog “seemed to be positive” although there were
some
performance
issues and suggestions for improvement. With Mastiff, there
were
“a number
of minor issues” that “could be easily solved” with a visit from
IPT. Those
included: a
lack of servicing schedule or handbook; radio batteries not
generating
sufficient
power for good communications; and air conditioning units not
adequately
cooling the
ECM, creating a risk of overheating. The “most significant concern”
was
that “the
vehicle would be a victim of its own success”; there had been cases
of visitors
“insisting
on travelling in Mastiff, relegating them to VIP taxis rather than
the patrol tasks
they were
bought to fulfil”. Lord Drayson “made it clear that they should not
be abused
in this
way”.
695.
Lord Drayson
was told that there were “many problems” with the Snatch 2
platform.
The Snatch
2A was “a lot more reliable than the Snatch 2” but needed
modifications to
improve
night vision and communications equipment.
696.
The visit
report highlighted that Mastiff was too large for use inside Basra
City.
There were
some areas where Bulldog was also too large to go and Snatch
was
deployed
because the threat of IED attacks in those areas was “minimal”. The
US
was using
less protected vehicles, Humvees, for that role but “protected them
through
aircover”.
The report stated:
“Given the
scientific limits on the amount of armour that could be applied to
a vehicle
the size of
Snatch, any vehicle used to carry out tasks in confined urban areas
was
inevitably
going to be at risk – but it was safer than carrying out the tasks
by foot,
or by
helicopter.”
697.
Lord Drayson
was told:
“Overall
there was a clear perception in theatre that UK MOD was not taking
account
of the rate
of change. UORs too often sought to deliver a perfect capability,
but in
doing so
delivered so late the requirement had changed or theatre were
without any
capability
for too long. It was suggested that if there were greater dialogue
between
theatre and
the ECC/ABW [Equipment Capability Customer/Abbey
Wood369]
on
individual
UORs then trades … could be made.”
367
GOV.UK,
10 February
2007, Private
Luke Daniel Simpson killed in Iraq; BBC News, 26
September
2007,
Iraq
soldier ‘unlawfully killed’.
368
Minute
APS/MIN(DES) to PSSC/SofS [MOD], 26 March 2007, ‘Minister(DES)
Visit to Iraq’.
369 Abbey
Wood is the location of the Defence Procurement and Support Agency
(DE&S).
119