2 Operation TELIC
Boards of Inquiry
9. The Department conducts examinations of serious
military incidents including deaths from friendly fire, investigating
the circumstances of the incident and making recommendations to
minimise the chances of a similar incident re-occurring. These
examinations are called Boards of Inquiry. All four incidents
of deaths from friendly fire during Operation TELIC were investigated
in this way.[19] The
time taken by these Boards to investigate is significant. In the
case of the incident involving two Challenger tanks outside Basra,
the Board of Inquiry took 28 months to report. The Department's
policy is that subject to external constraints such as police
investigations; awaiting information from technical experts; and
the necessity to synchronise some investigations with other allied
forces, the inquiries should be concluded within 14 weeks of the
incident.[20] Clearly
the Department was unable to meet its target deadline in these
cases.
10. The Department has agreed to make summaries of
all Boards of Inquiry reports available to Parliament. It has
gone further by making Inquiries into incidents of public interest
publicly available; this will include all Board Reports into fratricide.
There has been considerable delay from completion of the Board
of Inquiry to publication in some cases.[21]
In some cases, the time taken to publish the report took longer
than the inquiry itself. In the case of the Royal Marine landing
craft which came under friendly fire south of Basra in March 2003,
the inquiry was complete by December 2003 but the finalised report
was not published until February 2006, some 26 months later.[22]
The Department provided the Committee with more detailed information
about the delays which is summarised in Figure 1 below.
The families of the personnel killed in these friendly fire incidents
were kept informed about the progress of inquiries throughout
the process.
Figure 1: Boards of Inquiry delays
| Date of incident |
Details of Incident |
Length of time for investigation to conclude
| Reason for delay to conclude the investigation
| Time between conclusion of investigation and publication of report
| Reason for delay to publication |
| 22 March 2003 | United States Patriot surface to air missile shot down an RAF Tornado. Two United Kingdom airmen were killed.
| 12 months | Awaiting the results of a study by QinetiQ into the aircraft's identification friend or foe system.
Difficulty in obtaining technical data from the United States in a format compatible with United Kingdom systems.
| 2 months | Time taken to notify next of kin.
|
| 25/03/03 | British Challenger 2 tank engaged a second Challenger Tank 2 outside Basra. Two soldiers were killed and two wounded.
| 28 months | The Board of Inquiry was not convened until the Royal Military Police investigation was complete in May 2004. An initial Board Report was completed in July 2004 but the discovery of new evidence led the Board to be reconvened in November 2004. In January 2005, the Board ordered a technical investigation which required a special facility to be built because of depleted uranium dust.
| 4 months | Internal consideration of the Board's Report within the Ministry of Defence.
|
| 28/03/03 | United States Air Force A10 ground attack vehicle mistakenly engaged a British Combat Vehicle resulting in the death of one soldier and four wounded.
| 14 months | The Royal Military Police investigation was completed in October 2003. It was decided to delay the Board of Inquiry until the United States Report became available in December 2003.
| 20 months | Delays occurred in trying to persuade the United States to declassify their secret report. A heavily redacted report was released in September 2005 and the next of kin informed in October. The Report was finally provided to the House of Commons library in January 2006.
|
| 30/03/03 | A British Marine was killed, and four wounded when his landing craft came under fire from rockets and small arms fire.
| 8 months | As a result of a BBC programme raising doubts as to whether the incident was as a result of enemy fire, the Royal Military Police carried out two investigations between March and October. The Board of Inquiry was then convened in October 2003 and reported in early December 2003. The next of kin were given the Report in January 2004.
| 26 months | The Royal Navy were not aware of the requirement to provide high profile Board of Inquiry reports to Parliament and to publish them. Action was taken as soon as the requirement was known.
|
11. These delays can be explained by factors such
as preceding Royal Military Police inquiries; liaison with the
United States; and further more detailed investigations needed
when the convening authority did not believe that all questions
had been fully answered. These aside, there was still a significant
time lag before some reports were published. [23]
AIDES-MEMOIRES
12. The Department has undertaken work to research
the impact of human behaviour on the success of Combat Identification,
and the adoption of methods such as incident casualty checklists,
combat identification Aide Memoire cards and training packages
to reduce the risk of fratricide. During Operation TELIC the Department
produced 60,000 Combat Identification Aide Memoire cards which
aimed to raise awareness of Combat Identification. These cards
were transported to theatre but their distribution was prevented
by logistical problems,[24]
which was particularly unfortunate as they could have played a
role in avoiding any of the UK friendly fire incidents.[25]
The Department was confident that these problems would not occur
again, and the cards are now given to service personnel before
deployment.[26]
19 C&AG's Report, para 11 Back
20
C&AG's Report, footnote 9 Back
21
Q 1 Back
22
Qq 73-79 Back
23
Q 25 Back
24
C&AG's Report, para 27 Back
25
Q 13 Back
26
Q 14 Back
| 
