The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
rotating
individual units deployed and, where units were deployed on
operations,
allowing
units a period of respite between each deployment as set out in
the
Service’s
Harmony Guidelines.
•
Concurrency:
the number of operations of a given scale of effort and
duration
that could
be sustained by the force structure. SDR 98 concluded that “not
to
be able to
conduct two medium scale operations at the same time would be
an
unacceptable
constraint on our ability to discharge Britain’s commitments
and
12.
SDR 98 also
considered the “underlying problems of under-manning and
overstretch
that we
have inherited”.5
It defined
overstretch as “trying to do too much with too little
manpower”.
One result was that units and individuals were separated from their
families
too often
and for too long. Another was that preparation for other tasks and
longer-term
training
suffered. The additional pressures from “persistent overstretch”
contributed
to higher
exit rates from the Armed Forces, which exacerbated
under-manning.
SDR 98 concluded:
“We must
break this vicious circle. To do so we must match the commitments
we
undertake
to our planned resources, recognising that there will always be the
risk
of
additional short-term pressures if we have to respond rapidly to an
unforeseen
crisis. We
need to improve recruitment and retention so that our units are
properly
manned. And
we need to use our manpower in the most effective
manner,
particularly
seeking to avoid unnecessary separation or disruption to
individuals and
their
families.
“The Review
[SDR 98] has designed a future force structure matched to the level
of
commitments
we plan to be able to undertake. These structural changes,
combined
with
measures to increase recruiting and retention, will ease
overstretch.”
13.
The Harmony
Guidelines described the maximum time that Service
Personnel
should
spend away from their families (known as Individual Separated
Service)6
and
the minimum
time that they should have between operational deployments (known
as
14.
The MOD told
the Inquiry that the Harmony Guidelines were developed to help
it
“get the
work/life balance right” for Service Personnel and that, as the
name suggested,
these were
for guidance and were not “rules”.
15.
Each Service
(the Royal Navy, the Army and the Royal Air Force) derived its
own
Harmony
Guidelines based on an “analysis of historical norms and
judgements, training
4
Ministry of
Defence, Strategic
Defence Review – Supporting Essay 6, Future Military
Capabilities,
July 1998.
5
Ministry of
Defence, Strategic
Defence Review, July
1998.
6
The MOD
defines Separated Service as “Absence from normal place of duty or
lack of freedom to enjoy
leisure at
the normal place of duty/residence at place of duty”.
7
Paper MOD,
25 November 2009, ‘Harmony Guidelines’.
4