A powerful committee of MPs has warned that the armed forces are suffering from an acute shortage of battlefield helicopters.

The public accounts committee said the shortfall could be as much as 38 per cent of that required to maintain a full fighting force.

The botched procurement of the Chinook Mark Three also comes in for intense criticism.

"It is simply disgraceful that the MoD has spent a quarter of a billion pounds of taxpayers' money on the botched procurement of eight Chinook helicopters that cannot be flown because MoD can't determine if they're safe," said committee chairman Edward Leigh.

"The MoD urgently needs to work out whether the helicopters can be made fit for operations and how much this would cost the public purse, or whether there is any other good use for the helicopters aside from breaking them up for spares."

In a hard-hitting report the committee said the shortfall was "alarming" and called on the government to create a single organisation to determine whether a helicopter is airworthy and fit to enter service.

The procurement of the Chinook aircraft had made matters worse, the committee said.

"The acquisition of the Chinook Mark Three is one of the worst examples of equipment procurement that the committee has seen," said the report.

"Only 45 of 100 'essential elements' set out in the department's requirement were actually specified in the contract.

"Not enough work was done early on to translate the key requirements of the user into a specification that the contractor had to deliver."

The committee also noted that the MoD was "unable to say" who was responsible for the flawed procurement of the Chinook helicopters

"No-one seems accountable when things go wrong. It is time the department implemented our previous suggestion that all aspects of a project should be accounted for by a single individual who would have the role of single responsible owner," concluded the report.