The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
of civil
organisations supporting the IZ [International Zone] election
process and
civil
reconstruction such as the UN (who will only fly) and DFID. Having
received
a temporary
increase in Merlin hours and an additional airframe … this
uplift
was
withdrawn following the aviation FLR (Force Level Review) in early
Nov.
To compound
the problem of flying hours the Div seldom has sufficient
aircraft
serviceable
to actually match the required tasklines due to problems with the
ageing
992.
In January
2006, Cabinet approved the decision to deploy to Helmand. Dr
Reid
announced
that the UK was “preparing for a deployment to southern
Afghanistan” which
included a
Provincial Reconstruction Team as “part of a larger, more than
3,300‑strong
British
force providing the security framework”.527
993.
The impact of
that decision was summarised neatly by Gen Walker
as:
“Militarily,
the UK force structure is already stretched and, with two
concurrent
medium
scale operations in prospect, will soon become exceptionally so in
niche
994.
On 31 January,
Lieutenant General Robert Fulton, Deputy Chief of Defence
Staff
(Equipment
Capability) (DCDS(EC)), wrote to Gen Walker outlining the
options for
getting
“better operational utilisation” from support
helicopters.529
He
stated:
•
Work to
increase the utilisation of existing support helicopters was
already under
way as part
of a Chinook Operational Effectiveness Study. That represented
the
only
short‑term option to improve the availability of support
helicopters within
existing
resources.
•
“Utilisation
of a simpler, cheaper aircraft”, such as the recovered Sea King
Mk6,
to meet
non‑operational tasking had some potential to alleviate pressure on
the
operationally‑equipped
fleet. Equipment Programme funding could be “made
available
to begin recovery of some of these old aircraft from 2009” but
there
would be
some “significant” problems managing an expanded “two‑speed”
fleet
and the
additional running costs would be unaffordable under existing
Short
Term Plan
(STP) plans.
•
Recovered
Sea King Mk6 aircraft could prove to be a worthwhile “gap‑filler”
until
new
helicopters were procured to replace the ageing Puma fleet that had
an
Out of
Service Date (OSD) of 2010.
526
Report HQ
MND(SE), 18 January 2006, ‘Progress Report – Operation
TELIC’.
527
House of
Commons Official
Report, 26 January
2006, columns 1529‑1533.
528
Letter
Walker to Richards, 24 January 2006, [untitled].
529
Report
DCDS(EC) to PSO/CDS, 31 January 2006, ‘The Utilisation of
Operationally Equipped Support
Helicopters’.
168