Some of the British military's most important communications networks "collapsed at key moments during the Iraq war," Jane's Defence Weekly reveals.
A vital secure satellite communication link failed just as UK commanders in Qatar were trying to receive authorisation from government ministers in London to allow the bombing of a building in Basra where "Chemical Ali" was believed to be hiding
On the first day of the war, secure communications between London and the commander of UK forces in the Middle East also failed
"We had to rush to get equipment [into service] without an architecture," said one officer. "You can't wait until the last minute; you need time to train to turn equipment into a capability."
The proliferation of information technology systems in the UK armed forces was blamed for the network-wide interoperability problems during the Iraq war, with one officer calling it the 'Bermuda Triangle' issue. "On some occasions e-mails took 48 hours to get through."
