The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
1099.
Lord Drayson
told the Inquiry that he had asked Mr Browne to authorise
him
“to explore
whether helicopters could be found quickly and to worry about how
they
would be
funded after we had identified a possible
solution”.582
1100.
Lord Drayson
wrote:
“I held a
series of meetings with the military to try to reach agreement on
the
requirement
and then I pursued a number of paths to try and obtain
additional
helicopters
as quickly as possible. This included the decision to revert the
Chinook
Mk3s to
Mk2s following my review of the project, asking the Pentagon and
other
allies if
they had spare Chinooks we could lease or purchase and negotiating
to take
over the
contract for new Merlins built for Denmark …”
1101.
Addressing the
effectiveness of the MOD’s response, Lord Drayson
added:
“The
Department’s response was mixed. Great efforts were made to
provide
enhanced
flying hours through the provision of trained crews,
rotor‑blade
improvements,
improved defensive aid suites etc but it was difficult to get
the
Department
to agree on which type of helicopters were needed. The Joint
Helicopter
Command
suffered from not being ‘owned’ and therefore championed by
any
particular
service.”
1102.
Officials in
the Private Offices of Mr Ingram and Lord Drayson wrote to
Lieutenant
General
Andrew Figgures, DCDS(EC), on 19 December 2006 to thank him for his
work
investigating
the helicopter requirement.583
The minute
concluded:
“Separately,
the Ministers remain concerned regarding the lack of
robustness
of the
Support Helicopter fleet given the UK’s current operational
commitments.
They would
be grateful if you could ensure that options to make the fleet
more
robust,
such as the acquisition of the Danish Merlins, are considered in
the EP/STP
07
discussions.”
1103.
On 31 January
2007, Mr Blair met Air Chief Marshal Glenn Torpy, Chief of the
Air
Staff.584
A record of
the meeting from No.10 to Mr Browne’s Private Secretary stated
that
ACM Torpy
had said:
“The air
transport force was … under real pressure, with an aging airfleet,
and new
A400 that
would only come on stream in 2010/11. There was also a shortage
of
helicopters.
Sir Glenn noted the poor procurement processes and software
problems
for the
Chinook Mark 3. More was needed on intelligence and surveillance.
The
Predator
UAVs would be a major innovation.”
582
Statement,
15 December 2010, page 8.
583
Minute
APS/Min(DP) and APS/Min(AF) to MA/DCDS(EC), 19 December 2006,
‘Helicopters’.
584
Letter from
No.10 to MOD, 31 January 2007, ‘Prime Minister’s Meeting with the
Chief of the Air Staff
31 January’.
188