Perimeter security and force protection measures were inadequate, the committee believes, enabling 15 heavily-armed Taliban insurgents to infiltrate the camp and subsequently attack the airfield.
The committee found that “the arrangements for manning of the guard towers around the perimeter of Camp Bastion were exposed by the attack as inadequate”, and criticised a decision to leave one watchtower unmanned.
MPs were also “unimpressed by the evidence from the chief of joint operations”, and found that “insufficient attention was given to the fundamental requirement of defending Camp Bastion from external assault”. This, they said, was “complacent.”
The committee thinks that “British commanders must bear a degree of responsibility for these systemic failures and associated reputational damage,” because the attack took part in a UK area.