Dispute over British military's helicopter shortage in Afghanistan

The shortage of helicopters today emerged once more at the centre of a dispute over British troops in Afghanistan, although defence chiefs and army commanders have been bemoaning the problem for more than three years. In a classified memo written just weeks before he was killed by a roadside bomb in July, Lt Col Rupert Thorneloe, of the Welsh Guards, complained about the dangerous shortage of helicopters, saying: "This increases our exposure to bombs at the roadside ... We cannot not move people, so this month we have conducted a great deal of administrative movement by road."

Also this summer, the Commons defence committee warned that a shortage of medium- and heavy-lift battlefield helicopters was undermining operations and risking British lives. Lord Guthrie, former chief of defence staff, told the Guardian it was disingenuous of the government to say British forces had enough helicopters in Afghanistan. He has said fewer British soldiers would have died if they had more helicopters.

The government cut the military helicopter budget by £1.4bn in 2004. Eight Chinooks delivered to the Ministry of Defence by the US manufacturer Boeing in 2001 did not meet airworthiness standards and are not available to British troops, despite the tens of millions spent on them.
Guardian