Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Media: AFP
Byline: n/a
Date: 10 August 2006
LONDON - Essential military kit must be sent to Iraq urgently to protect
British troops who are under-equipped and overstretched despite escalating
violence there, a parliamentary committee reported Thursday.
The all-party defence committee highlighted shortages in vital equipment,
including armoured vehicles and helicopters, and said repeated tours of duty
were threatening the army's operational effectiveness.
"(We) were disturbed by the deficiencies in equipment they faced," the MPs
said in a report based on a visit to some of Britain's 7,200 troops in
southern Iraq.
"The MoD (Ministry of Defence) must address equipment shortages and
capability gaps as a matter of urgency. Our forces cannot wait for long-term
procurement projects to come to fruition; they need the kit now.
"We cannot send them on operations without giving them the tools they need
to do the job."
British involvement in the March 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq is still a
controversial subject here, particularly with the mounting death toll: 115
British personnel have since been killed in Iraq.
Concerns about equipment are equally long-standing: US troops nicknamed
their British counterparts "The Borrowers" because of their frequent
requests for kit while other problems date from the 1991 Gulf War.
Chief among the MPs' worries was the ineffectiveness of so-called "Snatch"
Land Rovers against the increasing use of road-side bombs.
Defence Secretary Des Browne has already ordered an urgent review after
several soldiers died while on patrol; he has pledged to send more
heavily-protected vehicles to both Iraq and Afghanistan.
But the members of parliament said: "It is unsatisfactory that the lack of
capability was not addressed with greater urgency much earlier."
On helicopters, they said there was a "deeply concerning shortage" and if
not addressed, "the effectiveness and coherence of UK operations on the
ground will suffer".
The committee also said it was "alarmed" that explosive-suppressant foam may
not be fitted to aircraft, despite the deaths of 10 personnel in a missile
attack on their Hercules C-130 transport plane in January 2005.
Former defence secretary John Reid conceded in May this year that the foam
-- which stops fuel tanks exploding when pierced by bullets and has been
standard on US planes since the Vietnam War -- may have saved their lives.
On repeated tours of duty, the MPs said official denials of overstretch
"contrasts with what we are hearing from service personnel on the ground".
"The issues raised in this report give rise to a fundamental question: are
our armed forces structured, trained and equipped to fulfil the role
envisaged for them...
"This is a question that goes to the heart of the government's defence
policy. We believe this question needs to be addressed."
In response, Browne said many of the report's recommendations were already
being carried out.
"There is no room for complacency, and I welcome the committee's scrutiny. I
will respond to the report in full when I have studied it in more detail,"
he added.
________________________________________________
Byline: n/a
Date: 10 August 2006
LONDON - Essential military kit must be sent to Iraq urgently to protect
British troops who are under-equipped and overstretched despite escalating
violence there, a parliamentary committee reported Thursday.
The all-party defence committee highlighted shortages in vital equipment,
including armoured vehicles and helicopters, and said repeated tours of duty
were threatening the army's operational effectiveness.
"(We) were disturbed by the deficiencies in equipment they faced," the MPs
said in a report based on a visit to some of Britain's 7,200 troops in
southern Iraq.
"The MoD (Ministry of Defence) must address equipment shortages and
capability gaps as a matter of urgency. Our forces cannot wait for long-term
procurement projects to come to fruition; they need the kit now.
"We cannot send them on operations without giving them the tools they need
to do the job."
British involvement in the March 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq is still a
controversial subject here, particularly with the mounting death toll: 115
British personnel have since been killed in Iraq.
Concerns about equipment are equally long-standing: US troops nicknamed
their British counterparts "The Borrowers" because of their frequent
requests for kit while other problems date from the 1991 Gulf War.
Chief among the MPs' worries was the ineffectiveness of so-called "Snatch"
Land Rovers against the increasing use of road-side bombs.
Defence Secretary Des Browne has already ordered an urgent review after
several soldiers died while on patrol; he has pledged to send more
heavily-protected vehicles to both Iraq and Afghanistan.
But the members of parliament said: "It is unsatisfactory that the lack of
capability was not addressed with greater urgency much earlier."
On helicopters, they said there was a "deeply concerning shortage" and if
not addressed, "the effectiveness and coherence of UK operations on the
ground will suffer".
The committee also said it was "alarmed" that explosive-suppressant foam may
not be fitted to aircraft, despite the deaths of 10 personnel in a missile
attack on their Hercules C-130 transport plane in January 2005.
Former defence secretary John Reid conceded in May this year that the foam
-- which stops fuel tanks exploding when pierced by bullets and has been
standard on US planes since the Vietnam War -- may have saved their lives.
On repeated tours of duty, the MPs said official denials of overstretch
"contrasts with what we are hearing from service personnel on the ground".
"The issues raised in this report give rise to a fundamental question: are
our armed forces structured, trained and equipped to fulfil the role
envisaged for them...
"This is a question that goes to the heart of the government's defence
policy. We believe this question needs to be addressed."
In response, Browne said many of the report's recommendations were already
being carried out.
"There is no room for complacency, and I welcome the committee's scrutiny. I
will respond to the report in full when I have studied it in more detail,"
he added.
________________________________________________
