Forces chiefs defy Brown on war

The Prime Minister was presented with a "shopping list" of equipment that commanders said troops desperately needed, as Chief of the Defence Staff Sir Jock Stirrup and army head General Sir Richard Dannatt called for more soldiers and more kit.

Sir Jock's very public comments, delivered outside No10, were a direct challenge to the Gordon Brown's assertion earlier this week that British commanders "have the resources" required to defeat the Taleban.

His involvement and the decision to go to Downing Street highlighted the drama of a week in which Sir Richard made public his concerns about the campaign during a visit to troops in Helmand.

Both men went public with their demands for more helicopters, additional troops and extra unmanned surveillance drones to seek out the Taleban.

Downing Street later said those demands would be looked at "very seriously".

In a month when military casualties in Afghanistan have hit a new record, the claim that underfunding is endangering lives will be greeted privately with horror by the government.

Sir Jock said a deployment of more helicopters in Afghanistan would save soldiers' lives – a direct contradiction of the Prime Minister's insistence that a shortage of aircraft had not caused recent casualties.

Another British soldier was killed yesterday by an improvised explosive device, taking the death toll for UK forces in Afghanistan to 16 this month.

Sir Jock said: "In this situation where you have lots of improvised explosive devices (IEDs], the more you can increase your tactical flexibility by moving people by helicopters, then the more unpredictable your movements become to the enemy.

"Therefore, it is quite patently the case that you could save casualties by doing that."

Troop levels are due to be scaled back after next month's Afghan elections. But Sir Jock insisted the current force size in Afghanistan was a "baseline", and warned against a reduction.

"We are at 9,000; that is our baseline. After the elections, we will see what else we can do."

He added: "If I thought we had enough helicopters in Afghanistan, frankly, we wouldn't be busting a gut to get the Merlins (a type of helicopter] we had deployed in Iraq ready to go out this time to Afghanistan.

"We wouldn't be working as hard as we are to try to get these eight Chinooks that have been sitting on the ground unusable for years into a condition where we can deploy them next year.

"We need as many helicopters out there as we can get."

It is believed there are as few as 23 UK helicopters in the volatile Helmand province, despite the Taleban's revived challenge.

Troops are being forced to use more land vehicles to carry out patrols and missions, putting them at greater risk of IEDs, the favoured weapon of the enemy.

It is Sir Richard's last month before he retires, and it is widely believed the head of the army will write a critical book about the strategic pressures facing the armed forces. Relations with the government have deteriorated, with ministers privately briefing that he would be "fair game" for criticism if a damning memoir were released.

Last night, Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth wrote to all his ministers, warning them to stop briefing against the general, a tacit admission that the government had been behind a smear campaign.

Sir Richard has triggered fury by openly warning about a short-age of helicopters, making a point this week of flying in a US helicopter on his visit to Helmand.

No10, keen to avoid an open confrontation with the military chiefs, said the army's shopping list would be closely examined. It is understood the government will spend tens of millions on intelligence gathering and surveillance equipment, such as drones.

But sources told The Scotsman that there was anger at the way that the Prime Minister had side-stepped questions about whether he had been asked by Sir Rich-ard for up to 2,000 troops.

Only 700 were sent to the country, the cheapest of four options presented to Mr Brown by commanders.

Sir Richard was even stronger than Sir Jock in his demands over troop levels. "It would be the right thing in the short term for us to stay at 9,000. Down to 8,300 would be wrong – militarily, I'm quite clear about that, and, as a member of the chiefs of staff committee, I couldn't sign up to that now," he said.

He warned that the UK might even have to increase its military presence if the case for a "short-term uplift" was made by the United States.

General Stanley McChrystal, the new US military commander in Afghanistan, is currently conducting a review.

Sir Richard said: "There may well be a case – and our government will have to confront it if asked – for about 12 to 18 months while the Afghan national army can get the right strength, for us to uplift."

In an interview for BBC Radio Four, he was asked if he felt as though he was fighting a war on "two fronts" – one in the field and the other against Whitehall.

He said discussion about resources and funding was important in a democracy, adding: "I think some issues should be aired so they can be debated, and I am unapologetic as far as that's concerned. If some think I have crossed the line, well, so be it."

Downing Street insisted it was "entirely normal" that the head of the army should return from Afghanistan with recommendations for equipment to be provided. "Of course we will look at this very seriously," a spokesman said. "There will be an internal process in the Ministry of Defence to look at how these recommendations can be implemented."

The latest row has been seized on by opposition parties.

Shadow defence secretary Liam Fox said the Conservatives would be "extremely likely" to approve the deployment of more troops to Afghanistan if they were in power.

"If we had a direct request from the head of the armed forces that they needed something specific to maximise the chance of success of the mission and minimise the risk to our armed forces, of course we would have to say yes to that," he said.

"If we have got a chance to speed up what's happening in Afghanistan, if we can speed up the training of the Afghan national army and police – in other words, get them to be able to maintain their own security quicker, and that means us being able to leave Afghanistan earlier – then I cannot see why we would not be doing that."

However, Tory sources have said shadow chancellor George Osborne may not be quite so quick to sign off costly defence requests.

Nick Harvey, the Lib Dem defence spokesman, controversially called for a total change in strategy, urging the Ministry of Defence to start negotiating with the Taleban.

He said: "All around the world, we have badged people as terrorists shortly before being forced to sit down with them around the table. The Taleban are no different."

MEANWHILE, MoD BLOWS BILLIONS

In 1995, the MoD ordered eight Chinook helicopters from the Americans. Officials forgot to include a clause that would ensure the helicopters were airworthy. This meant they immediately needed upgrading. This has cost 500 million and the helicopters have yet to be used.

The MoD also spent 1.5 billion to buy 11 Nimrod AEW spy aircraft from British Aerospace that were supposed to replace the RAF Shackletons in 1982. When this failed they then spent another 750m buying seven Boeing E3 planes, which the RAF had originally wanted.

The MoD spent 92m upgrading the SA80-A2 assault rifles even though the army claimed they were not up to the task. In 2002, a government report concluded the upgrade had been a waste of money. Marines claim the new SA80-A2 had failed on occasions in Afghanistan.

The MoD had to write off 118m because of a failed IT system launched in 1999.