Fighter plane flies into a storm - WalesOnline

A DAMNING report on the UK Government's purchase of multi-million-pound Typhoon fighter jets published today reveals that planes are being "cannibalised" for spare parts and pilots have not been fully trained.

Blaenau Gwent MP Nick Smith, a member of the Public Affairs Committee, said "eye-watering" amounts of money had been spent on the project, which is expected to cost £37bn over two decades.

Five Typhoon pilots had to be temporarily grounded last year because a lack of aircraft availability meant they could not do the required flying time.

Mr Smith said he was alarmed that only eight of RAF's 48 Typhoon pilots were qualified for ground attacks – the role the jet is being used for in Libya.

He said: "I was concerned about the lack of pilots when we had to enforce the no-fly zone."

Labour committee chairwoman Margaret Hodge was scathing in her assessment of how the procurement project had been handled.

"The history of the Typhoon fighter aircraft represents yet another example of over-optimism, bad planning and an unacceptably high bill.

" The MoD is now buying 30% fewer Typhoon fighter aircraft than originally planned, the cost of the project is now expected to be £3.5bn more than was originally approved and if we take all expenditure into account, the cost of each aircraft has increased by 75%.

"The department was unable to give us a coherent explanation of its 2004 decision to equip the early Typhoons with ground-attack capability, or of its subsequent decision not to use it. The department could also not adequately explain why it cancelled the third phase of the contract in 2004 on the grounds it did not need the capability, simply to reinstate the third phase in 2009.

"Lack of spares forces the MoD to ground and cannibalise some fighters to keep other fighter planes in service."

The committee noted that the Typhoon was commissioned during the Cold War to serve "a different set of priorities" and it took 20 years to be delivered.

When the MoD first entered into the contract for the Euro- fighter, as it was then known, in 1998 in collaboration with Germany, Italy and Spain, it had envisaged buying a total of 232 aircraft in three tranches.

That has since been cut to 160 – with the 53 oldest aircraft due to be retired by 2019, leaving a long-term fleet of 107 aircraft.

The Typhoon debacle will remind many in Wales of the scrapped £113m red Dragon which was intended to make St Athan in the Vale of Glamorgan a centre for fast-jet maintenance.

The committee complained that the MoD had been unable to offer a "coherent explanation" for a decision in 2004 to equip the early Typhoons for ground attack operations at a cost of £119m, only to switch them back to an air defence role in 2009, a year after the upgrade was ready.

Defence Secretary Liam Fox said the project was "under control and back on track".

He said: "The Typhoon is a world-beating, air-to-air fighter and is fast developing a ground attack capability as is being demonstrated in Libya."

He added: "I am determined that in the future such projects are properly run from the outset, and I have announced reforms to reduce equipment delays and cost overruns."

Air Vice Marshal Phil Osborn, Air Officer Commanding 2 Group, said: "We have sufficient Typhoon aircraft and pilots to undertake the task in Libya with the appropriate training for the systems and weapons carried by the aircraft. We wouldn't deploy a capability if we couldn't support it and we weren't able to execute it in the way that you would expect the RAF to execute it, which is in a proportionate, disciplined, reliable way."

It was reported yesterday that RAF Typhoon fighters launched their first attack on Gaddafi's forces, hitting two T72 battle tanks with laser-guided bombs near besieged Misrata city.