The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
1199.
The first
tranche could be delivered between 31 May and 31 August 2008
and
would cost
£40m. The date for overall completion of the project was estimated
as
“by December
2009”. Achieving those timescales was dependent on “long lead
items”
for the
first tranche at a cost of £14m. That expenditure would be at risk
on the core
Defence
budget unless the Treasury approved a call on the
Reserve.
1200.
Mr Browne
wrote to Mr Timms on 21 May.629
He stated that
the MOD was
proceeding
with the £14m purchase of long lead items but would not commit
further
without
Treasury agreement to fund from the Reserve. He added that the MOD
would
“negotiate
a contract with suitable break clauses to allow us to reduce the
project should
circumstances
allow and keep the overall requirement under review”.
1201.
Mr Timms
replied on 30 May.630
He agreed that
the £14m could be taken from the
Reserve but
added:
“In
considering further funding, the business case for the project will
need to
demonstrate
the continued requirement for the build once current UORs that
seek
to address
the same indirect fire issue … are deployed and operational in the
COB.
In
addition, we will need to be convinced that the long construction
time for the
project is
coherent with the UK strategic timeline for maintaining troops in
Iraq, and
the concept
of operations for troops in the COB after withdrawal from Basra
City.
“… We
should treat this initial funding as a net additional cost of
operations, but it is
explicitly
not
a UOR, and
should not be classified as such, given that it is
investment
in
infrastructure and not equipment …”
1202.
A Land Command
paper produced on 31 August 2010 stated that, between
June and
September 2007, the three months before Basra Palace was handed
over in
September
2007 (see Section 9.6), it received over 1,000 rounds of
IDF.631
1203.
On 5 June,
Lt Gen Houghton briefed the Chiefs of Staff that the next
six to eight
weeks would
see the introduction of a number of additional C‑IDF
capabilities:
•
UK C‑RAM at
BAS would reach full operating capability by 10 June.
•
The US had
agreed to loan five AH64 attack helicopters for an initial
period
of 30 days
starting on 10 June.
•
Counter‑battery
fire would be enhanced by the arrival of capability in
629
Letter
Browne to Timms, 21 May 2007, ‘Urgent operational requirement:
Hardened accommodation
in Iraq’.
630
Letter
Timms to Browne, 30 May 2007, ‘Hardened Accommodation in
Iraq’.
631
Report Land
Command, 31 August 2010, ‘Operations in Iraq: An Analysis from a
Land Perspective’.
632
Minutes, 5
June 2007, Chiefs of Staff meeting.
204