Dear Sir or Madam,

I would be grateful if you could direct me to any published data on
the UK's deployment of munitions in Afghanistan and Iraq.

I also request that you make available any non-published data you
have on bombs that UK forces have dropped from planes in
Afghanistan and Iraq. By 'bombs' I mean any explosive devices
deployed from aircraft including missiles and mines.

To the extent that data are available I would like data for:

* The type of explosive devices deployed including weight or yield
and number of any sub-munitions (e.g. 1: 'GBU–10 Paveway II, laser
guided bomb 2000 lb', e.g. 2: 'RBL-755 cluster bomb with 147
sub-munitions')

And for each type of explosive device I would like:

* The numbers deployed (with error-bounds where appropriate)

* The geographic and time distribution of deployments (e.g. '14 in
May 2004 in Basra', '3 in May 2004 in Kabul', etc.)

* Estimates of numbers of unexploded munitions and the basis on
which those estimates are made.

Yours faithfully,

Adam Nieman (Dr)

Dear Sir or Madam,

On 20 May 2008 I made a request for information under the Freedom
of Information Act. In brief, my question was:'How many bombs have
UK forces dropped in Afghanistan and Iraq?' (See:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/ho...).
According to the Act, a response was due on 18 June 2008 and is now
overdue.

I would be grateful if you would expedite your response. Please be
assured that the request is serious, not flippant, and that it
deserves attention.

Yours sincerely,

Adam Nieman

Dear Dr Nieman

Please find attached a response to your FOI request of 20 May 2008.

Info Access

Ministry of Defence

Dear Info-Access-Office,

Thank you for your reply to my FOI request of 20 May 2008.

I am writing again because you have not supplied the information I
requested. That is, I am unhappy with the response and am hoping
that you can provide a satisfactory answer without me having to
seek an internal review by contacting the Director of Information
Exploitation.

In the following, reference to 'bombs' covers all instances of
munitions described in my original request for information.

1) Published Sources I asked about published data about the UK's
deployment of munitions in Afghanistan and Iraq. Thank you for the
links you provided. The link to the RAF equipment site was useful
in (partially) decoding the acronyms in the headings in the table
you also provided. (I have been unable to find any information
about "540lb F/F" or "1000lb F/F" or "27mm" though.)

I should have been more specific about what I meant by 'published
data'. Rather than news articles, I was really after published
sources of data that may be similar to the information I
subsequently requested in my note. That is, I was asking whether
the MOD (or anyone else) has published reports or tables of
quantities of bombs dropped. I assume, since you have not directed
me to any such reports or tables, and because I have been unable to
find any in my own searching that they do not exist. But please let
me know if this assumption is mistaken.

2) Section 26 (Defence) exemptions I asked for data on bombs UK
forces have dropped from planes in Afghanistan and Iraq. I am
disappointed that you have chosen not to provide the geographic and
time distribution of deployments. I do not accept that the
information I requested falls within the scope of the Section 26
(Defence) exemptions of the FOIA. I specifically did not ask for
detailed information and did not ask about targeting.

You have provided information with a time resolution of 12 months
and a geographic resolution of 'Iraq' or 'Afghanistan'. By
responding this way, you seem to be suggesting that any finer
resolution would constitute a threat to security. I do not accept
this.

I asked (through my examples) for a time resolution of one month
and a geographic resolution of 'city' or 'region'. I would need an
explanation of what the nature of the threat might be before I
accept that my request falls under the exemptions outlined in
Section 26.

Please let me know at what level of detail a threat to security
emerges. (I am happy to accept your judgment on this matter,
especially if UK practice is roughly in line with practice in other
developed countries.)

3) Data prior to May 2007 You provided a table that covered the
period between 01 May 2007 and 01 May 2008. My request was not
bounded, but I would be satisfied with the numbers since September
2001.

I apologise if this was not made clear enough in my original
request. I asked for numbers of bombs dropped in Iraq and
Afghanistan. From the examples I gave, it was clear (or I believed
it was clear) that I was interested in a period that extended at
least to 2004.

4) Type of ordnance I asked you for the type of explosive devices
deployed and gave an example of the kind of detail I was expecting
- which wasn't very much. The data you supplied in table format
used acronyms that I am still unable to de-cipher. Not only were
the acronyms not explained in your note, they are non-standard
acronyms; they are not used on the MOD website, nor on any other
website. For instance, it took some time for me to work out that
UKEPWY2 refers to Enhanced Paveway II Bombs. This is not an acronym
I could find anywhere else on the World Wide Web.

Because you provided a link to the RAF equipment webpage I was able
to identify some of the weapons. However, I have been unable to
find information about '540lb F/F', '1000lb F/F' nor '27mm'. I
assume these are Air Fleet weapons - is that correct? What are
they?

In future, you may want to consider avoiding the use of acronyms
and contractions when responding to Freedom of Information
requests. If you do use acronyms without explaining them, try to
ensure that they are ones in common usage. Doing this will save a
lot of time.

5) Munitions failure rates Thank you for the links to Hansard,
which discuss failure rates of the CRV7 and BL755. Do you have
information about the failure rates of the Paveway II, Enhanced
Paveway II, AGM-114 and the other munitions you list in the table?

In summary, here is my original request restated:

Please tell me how many bombs and what kind of bombs were dropped
by UK forces in each region of operation in Iraq and Afghanistan
for each month since September 2001.

Note that I am not interested (in this instance) in any specific
question about targets or any details that would constitute a
threat to security.

To answer my question, the table you have already provided requires
the following fields: a) the type of bomb (including a name that
would allow the bomb to be identified in a in a standard reference
source, such as the MOD website) b) the month c) the region of
operation d) the number of bombs dropped e) the failure rate (if
the information is available)

Yours sincerely,

Adam Nieman

Dear Info-Access-Office,

It is now over two months since I requested information from you
under the Freedom of Information Act and nearly two weeks since I
informed you that I am unhappy with your initial response.

I again request a response. I will be writing to the Director of
Information Exploitation to seek an internal review and to my MP to
express my disappointment at your failure to respond unless I hear
from you by Tuesday 29 July 2008.

Yours sincerely,

Adam Nieman

Dear Dr Nieman,

Please find attached my response to your Freedom of Information request
submitted on the 11th July 2008 regarding the number of munitions used
in Iraq and Afghanistan.

If you have any difficulty opening the attachment or have any queries
regarding my response, do not hesitate to contact me.

Regards,

J9 POLOPS 10

Permanent Joint Headquarters (UK)

Northwood Headquarters

Sandy Lane

Northwood

Middlesex HA6 3HP

Tel. +44(0) 1923 838045

Dear Dr Nieman,

Please find attached my response to your Freedom of Information request
submitted on the 11th July 2008 regarding the number of munitions used
in Iraq and Afghanistan.

If you have any difficulty opening the attachment or have any queries
regarding my response, do not hesitate to contact me.

Regards,

J9 POLOPS 10

Permanent Joint Headquarters (UK)

Northwood Headquarters

Sandy Lane

Northwood

Middlesex HA6 3HP

Tel. +44(0) 1923 838045

Dear Dr Nieman,

Please find attached my final response to your Freedom of Information
request submitted on the 11th July 2008 regarding the number of
munitions used in Iraq and Afghanistan.

If you have any difficulty opening the attachment or have any queries
regarding my response, do not hesitate to contact me.

Regards,

J9 POLOPS 10

Permanent Joint Headquarters (UK)

Northwood Headquarters

Sandy Lane

Northwood

Middlesex HA6 3HP

Dear PJHQ-J9FOI,

Thank you for your letter of 2 September 2008.

I accept that you have supplied all the information you can under
the terms of the Freedom of Information Act, though I am very
disappointed that you have not been able to answer my question.
Indeed, I am shocked that nobody knows how many bombs we are
dropping in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I look forward to receiving the information about munition failure
rates when you have investigated its availability. I would be
grateful if you could also explain an inconsistency between your 8
July response and your 2 Sept response. In most cases, the two sets
of figures are consistent, but your 8 July 2008 response reports
316 27mm cannon between May 2007 and May 2008 while your 2 Sept
response reports just 292 27mm cannon in 2007 and 2008 (up to 28
August).

Yours sincerely,

Adam Nieman