The strategic defence and security review and the national security strategy

Written evidence from John Farley

1 The Prime Minister and others have said that our troops deserve the best while they are on operations. According to my information this is not happening in Afghanistan where our soldiers are less well supported by the Tornado than they were by the Harrier. This is not surprising as the Tornado was not designed to operate in the close air support role nor the ‘hot and high’ conditions of Afghanistan. I understand that one aircraft has been lost and another very badly damaged because of the difficulty of operating the Tornado from the one available runway.

2 Because it was not designed for this task, the Tornado necessarily takes longer to get airborne and on task from alert, a time often exacerbated by the need to flight refuel after takeoff due to weight restrictions in the local conditions. It also has experienced poor mission reliability, with many planned missions cancelled every month (45 in November I believe). This has resulted in other forces having to step in to ensure that our troops get urgent support.

3 This is in contrast with the record of the Harrier which spent nearly five years in Afghanistan and never failed to get a pair airborne (with serviceable mission equipment) following an unscheduled request for air support. All this was achieved with far fewer aircrew and engineers than the Tornado requires. The Harrier GR9 was designed for close support of ground forces operating from austere bases and it is arguably world class for that mission.

4 Perhaps the time has come to face the realities that a specialist aircraft is needed in such difficult and limited circumstances and to redeploy the Harriers while UK forces remain in Afghanistan. At a time when we aim to minimise costs deploying a single crew, single engine aircraft needing less man hours per flying hour must surely be better than using a two crew, two engine aircraft not purpose designed for the task.

5 May I respectfully suggest that you ask for the full comparative statistics behind my points above and take these into consideration during your review of the SDSR.

January 2011