14.1 |
Military equipment (post-conflict)
899.
The UK
procured the Desert Hawk ‘mini UAV’ from the US Air Force in
December
2003.473
Lt Gen Ridgway
reported that the US had “successfully employed the
system
on operations
in Iraq and Afghanistan”.
On 26
February 2004, the Defence Management Board (DMB) agreed a large
number
of service
enhancements and savings measures that should be offered as part of
a
The DMB
considered a paper by Mr Trevor Woolley, MOD Finance Director,
which
detailed
all the measures.475
It proposed
cutting the budget of £33m for the practical
experimentation
of UAVs over the following two financial years, which would retain
a team
to conduct
trials and inform future CONOPS development but:
“… there
would be significantly reduced pull‑through to programmes
addressing
capability
gaps in the persistent deep ISTAR of land and close or complex
terrain.
This option
is entirely dependent on the deferral of £4m from 03/04
…”
That
measure was one which the DMB felt needed further consideration
because of the
impact on
other programmes.
On 26
January 2005, the DMB discussed proposals in a paper by
Mr Woolley on the
‘Future
Defence Programme’.476
On
network‑enabled capability and ISTAR, Mr Woolley wrote that it
had been “necessary
to assume
significant savings” within the Equipment Programme, despite
attempts to
mitigate
them “as far as possible”. Those savings would require “careful
consideration”
and
included the decision to defer Watchkeeper by one year, “but with a
planned limited
interim
capability to support deployments from 2006”.
The minutes
from the DMB meeting recorded that the measure to defer
Watchkeeper
would incur
additional short‑term costs for supporting “older, less capable
equipment”
but those
had been allowed for.477
The measure
was approved.
900.
On 30 January
2004, Mr Adam Ingram, Minister of State for the Armed Forces,
was
advised
that a UAV capability gap remained.478
Phoenix was
due to be withdrawn from
theatre in
April because it struggled to operate in the heat of the summer
months.
901.
To provide “a
stand alone UK capability”, officials had investigated
procuring
either the
US Predator UAV system or the Hermes 450 UAV system but both
options
had been
ruled out because of “unacceptably high risk”. That risk was not
explained.
473
Minute CDI
to APS/SofS [MOD], 22 June 2004, ‘ISTAR Provision to Op TELIC – UK
UAV Operations’.
474
Minutes, 26
February 2004, Defence Management Board meeting.
475
Paper
Finance Director, [undated], ‘ST/EP04: Years 1 and 2’.
476
Paper
Finance Director [MOD], [undated], ‘Future Defence Programme
05’.
477
Minutes, 26
January 2005, Defence Management Board meeting.
478
Minute AD
Sec(Iraq) to PS/Min(AF), 30 January 2004, ‘Op TELIC Wide Area
Surveillance –
Preparations
for a Joint UK‑US Predator Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Task
Force’.
153