MOD orders more Big Buses of Death for Iraq and Afghanistan - Order one and 343 more come along

The beleaguered prime Minister (Gordon Brown as at mid-day) announced to Parliament today providing £100m of funding for 140 extra Mastiff (known by US as Cougar see pic) Mine Resistant Armoured potection (MRAP) vehicles for use in Iraq and Afghanistan.... that's about £750,000 a pop... which makes it a VERY heavy bus for 6 soldiers.


Secretary of State for Defence believed to be Scottish Solicitor Des Browne said:

"Mastiff has proved its value on operations offering high levels of protection against mines and roadside bombs. Today I am pleased to announce our intention to purchase 140 extra Mastiffs. (MOD pictures of complete vehicles from MOD here)

These vehicles will be ugraded from Cougars obtained from Force Protection in the US to Mastiffs by NP Aerospace in Coventry. This company was owned The Carlyle Group, the global private equity house who bought the company for £30 million from Reinhold Industries in 2005 and it was bought out by Management with help from Morgan Crucible, who have a small share holding and Barclays Bank.

Meanwhile Force Protection are having some problems with deliveries .... Saturday, August 25, 2007 - MRAP delays -"Different things happen in the continuum and there are certainly going to be time lags associated," but it doesn't seem to have occurred to any MP to ask Gordyor any journo to ask Des when delivery is expected.

The news simply consolidates the belief that defence planning is haphazard, last minute, ad hoc, unplanned, panicky, ill planned, hasty, and unco-ordinated.

HMG reliance on Private Security costs soar to over £150 Mn.

Channel 4 have chivvied the Foreign Office using FOI procedures into detailing the costs of Private Security Firms (PSE's) for protecting their officials in Iraq and Afghanistan > £150 MN so far. A role, which as a taxpayer, is what I thought (evidently mistakenly), we had the Armed Forces to perform.

In Iraq, the amount the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has paid out for the services of these firms has risen from £19,121,598 in 2003/4; to £47,818,682 in 2005/6.

The most recent figures for Afghanistan show a 400% (ish) increase from £2,085,000 in 2004/05; to £8,543,000 in 2005/6.

4 firms benefit from this FO largesse : Control Risks Group, ArmorGroup, Kroll Security Group and Edinburgh Risk Security Management (ERSM).

The US company, ArmorGroup, was also paid for providing police advisors £3,700,172 in 2004/5 which more than doubled to £8,417,242 in 2005/6... the funds for this came from a separate Gubment pocket called Global Conflict Prevention Pool (Iraq Strategy). Considering the mayhem and general murder that dawn discloses every day in Baghdad one is left to wonder how well this money is allocated or used.

The original document from the FO is available here and is (Please take notice Craig Murray) "protected by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. " according to Timothy Less, Conflict Issues Group, Room w.3.132, FCO

Suggestions that the Household Cavalry, the Blue and Royals, (recently joined by the pubescent Royal offspring see pic of Prince Hal (note no Swastikas)) who do such a splendid job of protecting the sovereign could usefully be employed doing this job of protecting HMG 's Ambassadorial staff in Baghdad (and the new Consul in Kirkuk, let us not forget as Kurdistan approaches nationhood) and Kabul should perhaps be addressed to him.

Whilst the horses might seem a bit of an anachronism on today's hi-tech battelefield, if Taliban marksmanship with their trusty, rusty jezreel proves too effctive they could at least be eaten by the beleaguered forces in Helmand who seem to have problems getting a square meal these days.