UK Forces' Vehicle Shortage 'Costs Millions'

British troops face "significant shortages" in armoured vehicles for at least 14 years, a public spending watchdog has warned.

Hundreds of millions of pounds has been wasted on undelivered equipment, the National Audit Office (NAO) said.

It said that without significant additional investment by the Ministry of Defence, the Army will not have all the armoured vehicles which it has identified as "top priorities" until 2025 at the earliest.

The NAO blamed "over-ambitious requirements and unstable financial planning" for failures which had led to just a fraction of vehicles being delivered.

In the 13 years since the Labour government's 1998 strategic defence review, the MoD has spent £718m on armoured vehicle programmes which have since been scrapped or have yet to deliver, the NAO said.

In the same period the MoD managed to procure fewer than 200 vehicles, at a cost of £407m, through its standard acquisition programme.

It has had to rely on emergency purchases through what the NAO said was an unsuitable system of "urgent operational requirements" (UORs) to get the vehicles needed to troops on operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Much of the equipment bought in this way was delivered without training or back-up support, causing problems in the long term.

Defence Equipment Minister Peter Luff said that the report highlighted the "serious flaws" in the wider procurement process under the previous Labour government.

"We are absolutely committed to a funded and realistic defence equipment programme to ensure our armed forces are properly equipped and taxpayers get value for money," he said.

"Given the disastrous state of the department's finances we inherited, this change will take time."

The head of the NAO, Amyas Morse, said: "The MoD's standard route for acquiring priority equipment has not been working in the case of armoured vehicles.

"Too many major projects have been cancelled, suspended or delayed.

"A long-term solution is likely to need significant further investment, realistic plans and stable budgets sustained over time."