'Flawed procurement' of unsafe Chinooks cost £259m

A "flawed procurement" of eight Chinook helicopters which could not fly safely in cloudy weather cost British taxpayers £259 million, according to a report published today by the National Audit Office (NAO).

The Chinooks were not fitted with properly tested computer equipment, and for the aircraft to be brought up to standard would require extra expenditure of around £127 million. Even if the upgrades are the carried out, the aircraft will not enter service until mid-2007, the NAO said.

The report said that "important lessons" should be learned from the acquisition of the Chinook HC3s, which were originally intended to be introduced into service in November 1998.

The report also found that there was a "large shortfall in helicopter capability" and further improvements needed to be made.

The overall shortfall, which relates to the armed forces' ability to move personnel and equipment between locations, stood at of 38%, according to the study. And if the MoD were to give its personnel as much time to rest and recuperate as its own guidelines set out, the deficit in overall helicopter availability would rise from 38% to 66%. For amphibious battlefield helicopters, this shortfall is as high as 87%.

"Shortfalls are especially apparent in the areas of communications, helicopter protection, including sand filters, and nuclear, biological, and chemical protection for aircrew," the report concluded.

In other areas, the armed forces have had to rely upon US equipment, aircraft and personnel to carry out critical overland search and rescue missions.

The report also found that pilots often did not have the recommended levels of flying training time to maintain their skills because of operational demands and a lack of helicopters.

The MoD does not expect these shortfalls to be corrected before 2017-18, the NAO said.

However, the audit office praised the pooling of the Royal Navy, Army and Royal Air Force battlefield helicopters into the Joint Helicopter Command [JHC] as it brought "significant benefits".

"It [the JHC] has helped to harmonise disparate operating and engineering standards, and is further able to draw upon equipment and personnel from the three services. This has led to greater efficiencies in operational deployment," the report said.

The JHC had helped prevent a repeat of the situation in Bosnia in 1996 when the three Services deployed some 40% too many helicopters, so duplicating efforts, the NAO found.

Agency chief Sir John Bourn told Parliament today: "Battlefield helicopters play a vital role in today’s military. We saw this in Iraq where they demonstrated their importance, for example, in supporting the assault to secure the Al Faw peninsula.

"The MoD is to be congratulated on the improvements made through the Joint Helicopter Command. However, more is to be done if the significant shortfall in helicopter capability is not to limit operations in the future."

(gmcg)