MoD struggling to maintain aircraft and supplies to troops

Lack of staff could confine Britain's nuclear submarines to dock within
18 months, warns defence expert

By Andrew Johnson
Sunday, 24 August 2008

The Ministry of Defence faces such a critical shortage of civilian
staff, engineers and technical expertise that it is struggling to
maintain its aircraft, and the supply of equipment to troops in
Afghanistan and Iraq is under threat, leaked memos reveal.

Senior commanders are also warning that the nuclear submarine deterrent
could be confined to docks within 18 months unless a shortage of
submariners and nuclear technicians can be resolved. The revelations
came to light in the week that the civil service union Prospect began a
High Court action claiming plans to cut 5,000 MoD jobs are illegal.

A memo sent last month from the head of the MoD's supply department
reveals that the organisation is struggling to process urgent orders for
land and surveillance equipment to be sent to troops in Iraq and
Afghanistan. The memo calls for staff to be co-opted from other
departments for 12 months to plug the gap, a move it admits is a
"sticking plaster" solution.

A second memo, from the MoD's Aircraft Maintenance Policy Board,
circulated widely in the MoD in May, warns that years of privatisation
and staff cuts have left the ministry without the expertise to maintain
its own aircraft.

"This paper argues that recent and future changes in the employment of
crown servant engineers will soon leave the MoD unable to fulfil its
intelligent customer remit and hence jeopardize airworthiness," it says.
"[Engineering teams] are punch drunk with additional requirements... and
there is evidence that they do not have the capacity to comply with
existing regulations...."

Several crashes have been attributed by insiders to either a lack of
know-how or loss of experience, most significantly the Nimrod aircraft
which blew up in Kandahar, Afghanistan, after a fuel leak in September
2006, killing all 14 men aboard.

In a meeting with the victims' families earlier this year, the Defence
Minister Bob Ainsworth admitted that a lack of trained engineers was
responsible for the delay in bringing the remaining Nimrod fleet up to
minimum standards.

There is also widespread concern at the shortage of nuclear engineers,
with warnings that the Clyde nuclear base in Scotland will be unable to
apply for a licence to operate unless the shortage can be addressed.

Earlier this month Commodore Chris Hockley, commander of the base,
launched an 18-month review to address staffing concerns which will look
at the possibility of privatisation.

Conservative MP Patrick Mercer, a former Army commander in Bosnia, said
that naval officers had told him that Britain's nuclear submarine fleet
would not be able to go to sea unless the shortfall in mariners was
addressed. Steve Jary, National Secretary of the civil service union
Prospect, said the MoD is "stretched to breaking point".

The MoD maintains that its aircraft, including the Nimrod, are safe to
fly. "The Ministry of Defence does not comment on leaked documents," a
spokesman said. "However, we recognise that there are a number of
pinchpoint trades within the armed forces and are taking steps to
mitigate any future impact through targeted recruitment campaigns and
retention measures."

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/mod-struggling-to-
maintain-aircraft-and-supplies-to-troops-907211.html