News Search Search this site or the web powered by FreeFind Site search Web search Story archive		December 12, 2003, Scotsman MOD SUPPLY SHAMBLES 'SHAMEFULLY LET DOWN' ARMY Gethin Chamberlain THE chairman of the Commons public accounts committee described the findings as an "outrage." The widow of a British soldier killed in Iraq said she was "disgusted." But Geoff Hoon, the Defence Secretary, pronounced himself content with the results of a highly critical report into the UK's military operations in Iraq earlier this year. While the National Audit Office report did conclude that the operation was an overall success, it contained damning criticism of major failings in the supply of equipment to forces in the Iraq. It was a picture all too familiar to the servicemen and women who were sent to the Gulf earlier this year. At the height of the fighting, many soldiers were still without body armour, or the ceramic plates that were needed to make it effective. The new light machine gun, the Minimi, arrived just a week before the troops went into action, without the necessary equipment to calibrate sights and with few spare parts. It worked, but it was a close call. Ammunition did not turn up until a couple of days before the fighting began. Up to that point, soldiers had been in the desert clutching rifles whose magazines were empty. Desert boots were a luxury, while weeks after the fighting ended soldiers were still sporting a mish-mash of battledress cobbled together from bits of desert kit and their standard issue uniforms. Yesterday, the NAO made it clear it was unimpressed. The report catalogued a series of failings which had left soldiers ill-equipped for the task in hand. Spares for the Challenger 2 tank, the AS90 self propelled gun and the Challenger Armoured Repair and Recovery Vehicle were in short supply. Modifications to AS90s were requested but were not fitted until the fighting was over. It was found that 4,000 sets of the Residual Vapour Detector used to detect residual chemicals following an attack, were unserviceable. In one extraordinary example of muddle, 200,000 sets of body armour issued since the Kosovo campaign in 1999 had simply disappeared. The report said 21,759 covers and 32,581 pairs of plates were issued into the supply chain but insufficient numbers were distributed to the troops. Underslung grenade launchers, a key infantry tool intended to be distributed to each four man infantry team, were not dispatched until the fighting was over. The troops, said Edward Leigh, the chairman of the Commons public accounts committee, were shamefully let down. "We expect the men and women of the armed forces to fight and maybe die for us. So it is an outrage that they could not expect all of the proper equipment, protection and even clothing to do the job we ask of them."
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