Vehicles and helicopters used by British troops in Afghanistan suffered from a shortage of spare parts because of the reliance on an emergency accelerated procurement process, a committee of MPs said on Tuesday.
While the supply process had generally been effective, in some areas it was "creaking" and helicopters back in Britain had had to be cannibalised to send parts out to Afghanistan, said Edward Leigh, chairman of the Public Accounts Committee.
"Most of the new equipment needed by our forces has been procured through an accelerated process, designed to deliver urgently needed kit as fast as possible to deal with rapidly evolving threats and harsh environmental conditions," he said.
"The serious downside is that problems with reliability have sometimes emerged only after the kit has been actually deployed. The MoD's (Ministry of Defence) reliance on this procurement process must be questioned."
Critics, including some senior military commanders, have accused the government of failing to provide enough, or the correct equipment, for the troops battling resurgent Taliban militants.
An unpublished internal report said MoD procurement was incompetent, with administrative failures at the top level putting soldiers' lives at risk, the Sunday Times reported in August.
Tuesday's report said most of the equipment supplied using the Urgent Operational Requirements process had performed well and that the MoD had been successful in providing medical support to the 9,000 troops serving in Afghanistan.
But it said there had been a shortage of spare parts for some ground vehicles and helicopters, and since July 2007 only 57% of demands made in Afghanistan met the supply chain targets.
Prime minister Gordon Brown is due to make a statement to parliament on Afghanistan on Wednesday amid expectations that Britain will send another 500 soldiers.
The MoD has said the decision to send more troops would be dependent on the feasibility of sending the necessary equipment.
Comments