‘INSANE’ MoD BLOWS £95M
Rap for civil servants over waste
THE Ministry of Defence has sparked fury after it emerged it spent £95million to cancel a “smart” missile system.
Military chiefs paid £200m to create battlefield programme Fire Shadow, which was destined for Afghanistan.
Capable of hitting targets from 50km away, the missile system was scrapped without being used in 2012. The £95m cost to the taxpayer was only revealed in documents last night.
The mega weapon is one of many programmes cancelled by the MoD at a loss.
Among them is the Short Takeoff and Landing system on the new Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier, which cost £40m to scrap.
Accounts revealed the MoD also lost £20m on a new computer system and £3m on lost gas canisters. The report also revealed the MoD wrote off £11m on so-called “fruitless” payments, £137m on constructive losses, £3m on abandoned claims and £28m on book-keeping.
A source at Army headquarters in Andover, Hants, said: “How are we supposed to generate support from the wider public when such vast amount of money are being wasted? It is insane.”
An MoD spokesman defended its situation last night.
He said: “We develop a whole range of cutting-edge military equipment, generating billions for our economy and arming our armed forces to defend us from current and future threats.
“We constantly review what we need to invest in based on need and the operational environment – when that situation changes, it makes sense to turn our and our industrial partners’ attention to different projects.”