Equipment Concerns Being Addressed

It was reported in Saturdays [Daily] Telegraph that Major Sebastian Morley resigned as a result of the Ministry of Defences failure to provide 'proper kit' to operations.>> Equipping our personnel is a clear priority and we are absolutely focussed on providing them with a range of vehicles that will protect them from the ever-shifting threats posed by the enemy.>> Safety of our personnel is a prime concern and that is why we have delivered 10 billion of new equipment to the forces in the past three years with over 1Bn for new vehicles alone. We cannot make our vehicles invulnerable; any vehicle can be overmatched if faced with an overwhelming attack. However, our announcement this week of a 700 million spend on more than 700 new and upgraded armoured vehicles will increase the protection of our vehicles against all threats, including explosive devices and takes our fleet of new vehicles with high levels of protection to 1200 for operations.>> A range of armoured vehicles is now available, from the heavily-armoured Mastiff to the more agile Jackal. They provide commanders on the ground with the varying degrees of protection, mobility and firepower necessary to match the differing situations and threats they face.>> However commanders on the ground will always tell you that for some tasks they would prefer to use a vehicle with the size, capacity to carry troops and the agility that Snatch offers, especially in tight areas. So as part of our package of measures to improve our protected mobility we are also spending 30M to upgrade all our Snatch on operations to Snatch Vixen, which provides the same level of manoeuvrability with increased protection. Modifications to the Snatch Vixen will offer the highest levels of protection for its size and weight class. These improvements build on the work done in the last two years to ensure that commanders have a variety of vehicles with different capabilities at their disposal.