Afghan defence equipment under fire

The Commons Public Accounts Committee said that while most of the equipment acquired through the urgent operational requirement (UOR) system had performed well, there had been problems.

In some cases, a lack of reliability only emerged once the equipment had actually been deployed in theatre, while both helicopters and armoured vehicles had suffered from shortages of spares.

One vehicle, the Vector, which was originally bought to replace the lightly-armoured Snatch Land Rovers, performed so poorly it had to be withdrawn and replaced with an upgraded version of the Snatch.

When the Mastiff armoured vehicles were initially deployed to Afghanistan last year, at one stage only 20% were classified as "fit" due to the effects of the harsh terrain and a lack of spares, although the situation has since improved.

Meanwhile shortages of helicopter spares has meant that aircraft both in theatre and back in the UK have had to be "cannibalised" for parts - while British troops had been left to rely on contracted or other coalition helicopters.

The committee said that the forthcoming strategic defence review should "fundamentally re-examine" whether the current equipment programme was delivering the right balance of capabilities for both current operations and future needs.

Edward Leigh, the committee chairman, said that there were important areas in the system of support for forces deployed on operations where the process was "creaking".

"This equipment has mostly performed well. But the serious downside is that problems with reliability have sometimes emerged only after the kit has actually been deployed," he said.

"The MoD's high degree of reliance on this procurement process must be questioned."