'Poor links hit Iraq operation'

Efforts were needed to improve communication, the air marshal said

Inferior communication between the RAF and army affected UK operations in Iraq, a senior defence figure has said.

Air Marshal Glenn Torpy, number two at headquarters strike command, pledged lessons would be learned with greater "integration" between the two services.

He said steps were underway to provide UK forces with US-compatible equipment.

"We have forgotten some of the things we were quite good at doing," he told MPs on the Commons defence committee.

The air marshal added: "No doubt we need to do more regarding air and land integration.

Co-operation?

"There are lots of lessons we have learned out of this campaign on integration."

The problems experienced in Iraq came about in part because of the first Gulf War and Kosovo where there had been very little integration between the two services, he said.

"It was the first operation for many years where there was such close linkage between the land and air campaign," he said.

A lot of work was now going on in a bid to overhaul existing systems and improve training so operations could be better co-ordinated with the army, he added.

Air Marshal Torpy added that in spite of the difficulties the RAF had been well-prepared for conflict with aircraft in much better condition than they had been for the first Gulf War.

Civilian casualties

The service could have carried on with operations in Iraq for up to six months and was already back to full strength.

The air marshal also said that civilian casualties were kept to a minimum.

"We were only allowed to target military targets," he said.

"There will be, in some cases, the risk of damaging civilian [infrastructure] and killing civilians near the target.

"We have to balance the military worth against the potential for collateral and civilian damage."

'Fratricide'

He also insisted that so-called friendly-fire deaths were inevitable during warfare.

"Friendly fire incidents are obviously a human tragedy and also have an impact on our campaign. It is in all our interests to make sure we reduce fratricide to an absolute minimum."

"It is unrealistic to say we could eliminate blue-on-blue."

"As a military commander I regret to say we will continue to have fratricide just as we will continue to have road accidents with deployed forces.

"It is our job to ensure these tragic incidents are reduced to an absolute minimum."