The Report of the Iraq Inquiry

619. The evidence given to the Inquiry demonstrates that senior military

officers and officials in the MOD fully understood the limitations on the size and

readiness of the forces available for deployment on expeditionary operations

agreed in the 1998 Strategic Defence Review and set out in the Defence Planning

Assumptions (DPAs).

620. Sir Kevin Tebbit stated that the scale of the deployment was consistent with the

DPAs, and that: “It was the type of operation that we expected from time to time to be

able to mount.”337

621. Sir Kevin Tebbit was later asked what lessons had been learned from the earlier

experience in Iraq.338 One lesson he cited was:

“… we assumed that we would have stocks for six months, and that when we came

to a major operation we would have preparation time to conduct a large scale

operation by building up stocks in that period.

“… if we wanted to go for a large scale, we would need six months in order to

acquire the necessary extra equipment, stores, personnel, clothing, ammunition,

things like that.”

622. On the SDR, Sir Kevin Tebbit told the Inquiry:

“… when we said that the SDR did involve the ability to move up to large scale

from time to time, we hadn’t got a precise view, but we were looking at once every

10 years we could gravitate up to large scale.339

623. Gen Jackson told the Inquiry that:

“… the Defence Planning Assumptions which had emerged from the Strategic

Defence Review of 1997/98 allowed for, from time to time, a large commitment,

which in land force terms was at the divisional level, this was not regarded as

anything we could contemplate on an enduring basis, a one-off from time to time …

“More germanely we would be able to maintain a medium-sized commitment,

i.e. brigade level, indefinitely and we could on a one-off basis add a second medium

scale commitment.

“There was some small print about a small scale … but I think it is within the ability

to produce a second brigade on a short-term basis.”340

624. The MOD also understood that the deployment could not be sustained for

more than six months.

337 Public hearing, 3 February 2010, page 24.

338 Private hearing, 6 May 2010, pages 48-49.

339 Private hearing, 6 May 2010, page 51.

340 Public hearing, 28 July 2010, page 7.

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