Troops in Afghanistan to Get 600 New Armoured Vehicles

Hard-pressed and vulnerable British troops in Afghanistan will be supplied with 600 new armoured vehicles under a £500m deal agreed between the Ministry of Defence and the Treasury, government sources said yesterday.

The new troop carriers should enable the phasing out of the lightly armored "Snatch" Land Rovers in which more than 30 British soldiers have been killed over the past five years in southern Afghanistan.

The Land Rovers, first used in Northern Ireland, protect troops from small arms fire but provide little protection against roadside bombs, which have been increasingly deployed by the Taliban and other insurgents. "We want to get to a point where we do not have to use the Land Rovers," a defence source said. defense officials have defended the Land Rovers in the past, saying that they can travel relatively fast over rough ground and are more appropriate for "hearts and minds" missions.

Corporal Sarah Bryant, the first British female soldier killed in Afghanistan, and three SAS reservists died in June when their Land Rover was destroyed by a landmine. Susan Smith, whose son Phillip Hewett died in Iraq in 2005, has taken an action for damages against the MoD alleging "failures" over the use of the vehicles.

Under an agreement which Des Browne, the defence secretary, has been pushing for some time, the Treasury will pay £400m of the cost for the new carriers, with the MoD paying the remaining £100m from its own overstretched budget. Military commanders hope most of the 600 promised vehicles will be delivered to Afghanistan by next spring.

They will include Mastiffs, a version of American Cougars adapted for the army by a Coventry-based company, about a hundred smaller but heavily-armed 4x4 Jackal patrol vehicles, and a number of lighter vehicles to replace the existing fleet of Viking personnel carriers.

An MoD spokesman said it was "constantly looking to improve the equipment provided to its forces on the frontline". However, ministers and military commanders have made no secret of their frustration over the length of time it has taken. Part of the problem has been the severe pressure on the defence budget as billions of pounds have been committed to long-term projects, such as aircraft carriers and Eurofighter/Typhoon fast jets, of little relevance to the conflict in Afghanistan.

As a result of a joint UK-French initiative, European members of Nato who have not deployed combat troops to Afghanistan have now agreed to contribute about £30m to supply idle military helicopters, with fully-trained crews.