HC Deb 19 November 2001 vol 375 cc14-5W
Mr. Rosindell

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will list the causes of breakdown in armoured vehicles on exercise Saif Sareea 2; when such breakdowns had been anticipated in advance by(a) his Department and (b) service staff; and if he will make a statement. [14809]

Mr. Ingram

Detailed information on the causes of the limited number of breakdowns among the 395 armoured vehicles deployed during the six weeks of Exercise Saif Sareea 2 has not yet been collated but should be available early next year as part of our standard post-deployment assessment. Providing the information at this stage would incur a disproportionate cost.

We did not anticipate any specific causes of breakdown for individual armoured vehicles types although some unplanned maintenance was inevitable given the challenging environment.

Overall the armoured vehicle fleet deployed on Exercise Saif Sareea 2 performed very effectively. The experience gained from the exercise will provide valuable lessons for future deployments.