Friendly-fire progress criticised

MPs have accused the Ministry of Defence of not doing enough to protect British troops from friendly-fire incidents.

An influential committee said a catalogue of delays to crucial new equipment meant little progress had been made since 2002.

It also hit out at the failure to distribute thousands of aide memoire cards among troops in Iraq - saying they could have helped avoid casualties.

A young soldier whose armoured vehicle was fired on by a US aircraft was among six UK personnel killed by allied fire.

In a short but hard-hitting report, the public accounts committee said the MoD had "failed to develop viable combat identification solutions to counter the risks of friendly fire incidents, despite their devastating effects."

While some improvements had been made, notably for air and sea operations, outstanding issues now had to be addressed "without further delay", the MPs ordered.

Their latest review found that more than half of projects to develop new kit to avoid the hazard had been deferred, delayed or "re-scoped" in the last four years.

A crucial Battlefield Target Identification System was still several years away from being ready, restricting the value of other technology.

And with failure to reach agreement with allies leading to six years of delays, the MPs said a more limited home-grown version should be considered in the meantime to cover high-risk areas.

The failure to give out any of the 60,000 combat identification cards was dubbed "particularly unfortunate" by the committee.

"These cards were transported to theatre but their distribution was prevented by logistical problems which was particularly unfortunate as they could have played a role in avoiding any of the UK friendly fire incidents," the report concluded.

© Independent Television News Limited 2007. All rights reserved.