Helicopter shortage predicted for armed forces

A report by MPs has warned that the UK's armed forces face an "alarming" shortage of battlefield helicopters.

The Public Accounts Committee's report said that the crisis was worsened by the purchase of eight Chinook helicopters, at a cost of £259 million, which have remained grounded.

The Mark 3 Chinook transport helicopters, which were purchased from Boeing in the late 1990s, only met 45 of the 100 'essential elements', which the MoD had specified, the report said. This meant that the helicopters do not meet the required safety regulations of the MoD.

The MPs described the purchase as "one of the worst examples of equipment procurement" they had ever witnessed.

The report said that the gap between the number of helicopters required and those actually available to the Ministry of Defence (MoD) was between 20% and 38%.

The MoD's had an overall fleet of 357 battlefield helicopters, as of April 2004, which provided support to all land, amphibious and Special Forces' operations.

The Public Accounts Committee made a series of recommendations on how the MoD could rectify the problem. These included the creation of a single organisation, which would determine whether a helicopter was airworthy and decide if it was fit to enter service. Individual services currently make these decisions.

The report stated: "The Department was unable to say who was responsible for the flawed procurement of the Chinook Mark 3. No-one seems accountable when things go wrong."

Defence Procurement Minister Lord Bach welcomed the report and said: "We accept that we must properly manage all of our procurement projects."

Lord Bach also anounced plans to invest around £3 billion in Future Rotorcraft Capability, which he said would " replace and enhance our existing helicopters".

Commenting on the procurement of the Chinook Mark 3 helicopters, Lord Bach said: "The Chinook Mk3 procurement was first agreed and contracted for in 1995, before Smart Acquisition was adopted by the Department. We do not believe that the problems encountered by Chinook Mk3 would occur again if this project was repeated. The MOD has learned lessons from this and routinely applies these to all other projects. We have introduced a Review & Assurance process for project progress. It is far more important to learn the lessons and move forward rather than to apportion blame for mistakes made long ago, and to learn nothing from them."

(KMcA/SP)