The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
52.
General Sir
Mike Jackson, Chief of the General Staff, visited Iraq from 10
to
13 October
2005.41
In his
report to Gen Walker, he set out the heavy demands on
the
UK’s
Support Helicopter (SH) fleet, and continued:
“If our SH
capability is inadequate, our AT fleet is worse. The air bridge to
theatre is
now so
fragile that sustaining an efficient R&R schedule is nigh on
impossible. Quite
apart from
the morale effect of inordinate delays, the difficulties with
R&R are now
beginning
to impact significantly on the operational effectiveness of the
Division.
The
situation is so bad that I am asking HQ Land to re-examine, at
least in principle,
whether we
might not re-adopt 4 month operational tours without R&R. Since
I
suspect
there will be very many reasons against this – continuity and our
current
training
cycle to name but two – we really need to take stock of our AT
capability
in the
round, especially in light of our impending commitment to
Afghanistan.”
53.
Later that
month, the Chiefs of Staff “noted” that the UK’s AT capability
was
“unable to
meet current and prospective demands”, and that General Sir
Timothy
Granville-Chapman,
Vice Chief of Defence Staff, would undertake a stocktake
and
scope
increased availability.42
54.
Gen
Granville-Chapman reported to Gen Walker in December that the
main
constraint
on AT was the lack of DAS-equipped passenger aircraft to support
current
operations.43
The
decision that only DAS-equipped aircraft could carry passengers
to
Iraq and
Afghanistan meant that only three RAF TriStar aircraft were
currently available
to support
the air bridge.
55.
Gen
Granville-Chapman described the work that was under way to address
the
shortfall
in AT availability. A further three TriStar would be fitted with
DAS, and a fourth
for DAS.
Those aircraft would become available between May 2006 and February
2007.
The MOD had
chartered civil aircraft to shuttle between the UK and a “hub” at
Al Udied
airbase in
Qatar, reducing the burden on TriStar. The first charter flight had
been on
6 December.
56.
The deployment
of additional forces to Afghanistan in 2006 would “demand a
surge
in AT
requirement”. To handle that demand, the MOD was exploring the
possibility of
establishing
a Forward Mounting Base (FMB) for TriStar that shortened the
transit time
to and from
theatre.
57.
Gen
Granville-Chapman also addressed a number of “more radical
approaches”
including
using civil aircraft fitted with DAS to fly into theatre, and
procurement of
additional
aircraft. On the latter, the only viable option that would make a
difference to lift
capacity
within two years was the early acquisition of a fifth C-17
(currently scheduled
41
Report CGS
to CDS, 18 October 2005, ‘CGS Visit to Iraq: 10-13 Oct
05’.
42
Minutes, 26
October 2005, Chiefs of Staff meeting.
43
Minute VCDS
to CDS, 12 December 2005, ‘Air Transport Support to
Operations’.
12