MoD blasted for Chinook 'cock-up'

A seven-year wait for badly-needed Chinook helicopters to be airworthy has been described as a "gold standard cock-up" by a senior Conservative MP.

Edward Leigh, chairman of the Commons public accounts committee, made the comments as the National Audit Office (NAO) criticised the government's attempts to make the craft serviceable.

Published on Wednesday, the report described how the Ministry of Defence (MoD) took three years to make a decision about eight new Mk3 ships whose avionics software was not up to scratch.

Costing £259m, the helicopters were delivered in 2001 but could only be flown when the sky was cloudless so that landmarks were visible to the pilots, and the Commons public accounts committee later described it as "one of the most incompetent procurements of all time".

With the new special operation ships grounded, Mk2 and Mk2a helicopters had to be adapted and diverted from standard operations, exacerbating the shortage of aircraft, the NAO said.

Leigh explained that the addition of a night enhancement package to the older craft also "obscures the pilot's forward view, potentially endangering the safety of the aircraft and service personnel aboard".

In 2004, the MoD identified a 'fix to field' solution for the Mk3s, to be ready by 2008, but a 'protracted' 30-month preparation process pushed that back to 2011/12.

By 2007, operational pressures in Afghanistan had led the MoD to abandon the fix to field project altogether and instead embark on a scheme to revert the craft to Mk2 standard in order to get them into theatre two years earlier.

The NAO report said that the reversion project would have been "unnecessary", had the department progressed the fix to field project more quickly.

Leigh went further, saying that "the Ministry of Defence's programme… has been a gold standard cock-up" which was set to cost more than £422m by the time it is completed.

"Nearly seven years since they were delivered, the Chinook Mk3s are still languishing in climate-controlled hangers – despite the fact that they are desperately needed on operations in Afghanistan," he added.

"This is a very unhappy state of affairs, made more acute by the knowledge of how much our soldiers in the hostile terrain of Afghanistan need helicopter support."

A defence spokesman said that, "in 2007, the MoD took the necessary decisions rapidly, based on pressing operational need" allowing more Chinooks to be sent to Afghanistan – where they are the best-suited craft for the "hot and high" conditions – as quickly as possible.

Defence equipment minister Baroness Taylor said the programme was "one of several steps being taken to increase helicopter lift capability for operations".