14.1 |
Military equipment (post-conflict)
1182.
In the
meantime, theatre was about to subdivide dining areas, which
would
reduce the
threat of a mass casualty event, and the US Sense and Warn system
was
“seen as a
real positive” for the warning time it provided.
1183.
Lord Drayson
had been told how FMV surveillance was “crucial to
situational
awareness
and counter IDF operations” but the UK was reliant on US
assets.
The US had
recently withdrawn Apache helicopters from Basra as they had not
“been
used
kinetically”.
1184.
Lord Drayson’s
report stated:
“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
Wood620]
on
individual
UORs then trades … could be made. The example quoted was of
UAVs.
Hermes was
seen as a Rolls Royce solution to a requirement that would now be
met
(in a
bridging capacity) by Scan Eagle, and might better have been met
sooner in
that way.
Equally deployment of the Desert Hawk UAV was being delayed by the
UK
approach to
airworthiness,621
and the
Raven system might have been bought more
quickly. It
was felt that more visits from DECs and IPTs would help
…”
1185.
Lord Drayson
met the Commander of JHF‑I and the aircrew:
“This was a
sobering meeting with the aircrew clearly very busy … and with
a
number of
concerns about their equipment and the levels of
support.”
1186.
Some of the
concerns raised were:
•
Sea King
was fundamentally an old aircraft and the lift capability it
provided
declined in
the summer.
•
With Lynx
and Merlin, there was a problem of spares supply and the
DSPs
for Merlin
were still unfunded.
“Lord
Drayson would be grateful for advice from DCDS(EC) on what can be
done to
improve
communication between UK and theatre, and for him and CDM to
reinforce
the urgency
that everyone should attach to delivering UORs.”
620 Abbey
Wood is the location of the Defence Procurement and Support Agency
(DE&S).
621
References
to Desert Hawk from 2007 onwards refer to Desert Hawk 3 – a
different model to that
deployed in
January 2004. Desert Hawk 3 was eventually withdrawn for technical
problems.
201