RAF’s Air War In Libya by Sloggett Dave;

Author:Sloggett, Dave;
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 1274547
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2013-05-22T00:00:00+00:00

The Campaign Narrative

The Ministry of Defence name for the campaign in Libya is OPERATION ELLAMY. One of the notable elements of the early part of the operation was the frequency with which briefings were given to the media. On the Sunday morning of the first day of operations the Ministry of Defence (MoD) fielded Major General John Lorimer in the role of the Chief of the Defence Staff’s Strategic Communications Officer. This was an interesting development, and clearly highlights some learning within the MoD about ensuring that the messages that needed to be put out in the public domain were organised and working to a single strategic narrative. The language that became a consistent theme of the briefings that were to follow, showed a constancy that was less easy to observe in previous campaigns.

David Cameron clearly wanted the messages kept succinct and to the point. This was a new departure for the MoD who had shied away from giving this kind of regular briefing in the face of what had become a hostile press during the Iraq War and the subsequent counter-insurgency campaigns. At the outset the MoD clearly took the view that it was the right thing to do to provide daily updates to a voracious press.

The age-old adage of ‘tell them once and them tell then again’ applied. The themes of the legality of the action, and the need to protect the citizens of Benghazi, were hard-wired into each briefing. As the campaign unfolded however, and the inevitable mission creep started to develop, it became quite difficult to hold to those themes.

As the mission developed, and immediate threat to the people of Benghazi quickly evaporated, the attempts by the rebel forces to then strike out to the west to capture towns and cities en route to liberate Tripoli shifted the requirements on the missions being flown by the Royal Air Force and their coalition partners. The mission subtly morphed into one that now had a new aim, the replacement of Colonel Gaddafi as leader of Libya. This was no longer a mission to protect the citizens of Benghazi from the wrath of Gaddafi. It was to achieve regime change. As far as many members of the international community were concerned this was not what they had signed up to at the start. Frictions were then to arise that, as the pace of progress faltered, would throw the previously organised strategic narrative into disarray.

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