The report into the fiasco earlier this year will not be published for operational reasons. It has been compiled by Lieutenant-General Sir Rob Fulton and recommends new specialist teams designed for these operations. The sailors had not trained together although they had training on these boardings on an individual basis.
Admiral Sir Jonathon Band, the First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff yesterday admitted that it had been “a bad day in the Royal Navy’s 400-year history”. But no one was blaming the 15 boarding-party members for surrendering to the Iranians.
General Fulton concluded that the events of March 23 were “not the result of a single gross failing or individual human error, but of the coming together of a series of vulnerabilities” which had placed the British personnel “in a position that could be exploited through a deliberate act by an unpredictable foreign power”.
Mr Browne said that General Fulton’s conclusions suggested that there was no case for disciplinary action against any of the individuals involved. “But his report does emphasise that many of those individuals could have done more to prevent what happened,” he told the Commons.
Whilst recognising that vulnerabilities may arise, there is disappointment with a report that does not address the singular lack of a naval ethos. This was the most destructive outcome of the incident. The Royal Navy needs to re-examine the mores and practices enjoyed by its seamen.