Minister admits Army's assault rifle is still jamming in Afghanistan after £92m refit
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Your support makes all the difference.Fresh doubts emerged yesterday over the British Army's new assault rifle amid continuing complaints at its performance and calls for the whole project to be ditched despite a recent £92m refit.
Geoff Hoon, the Secretary of State for Defence, admitted that there were continuing concerns at reports of the SA80-A2 jamming and misfiring in Afghanistan, only months after the weapon was unveiled as one of the best of its kind in the world.
A Ministry of Defence team has arrived back from Afghanistan after investigating three separate complaints by British troops. The MoD's Small Arms Corps, with a Royal Marine colonel and the arms firm Heckler & Koch, which made the extensive modifications, is due to deliver its findings next week.
Bernard Jenkin, the Conservative defence spokesman, maintained that money would be better spent on buying a new rifle rather than pouring it into even more changes.
Mr Jenkin said: "If this turns out to be a continuation of the previous problems, I think it is going to be very, very difficult to sustain this rifle in the British Army. If you are fighting a war and you hesitate because you haven't quite got the faith in your weapon that you should have, that is obviously fatal, and we can't put our soldiers in that position."
The original SA80 was suspended from the Nato nominated weapon list in 1997 after soldiers experienced problems such as jamming in conditions of extreme heat. There were reports, denied by the MoD, that the weapons had jammed when British paratroops were engaged in a firefight with rebels from the Revolutionary United Front in Sierra Leone.
After the refit, during which 13,000 rounds were test-fired in the Kuwaiti desert, the SA-80 A2 was unveiled amid much fanfare.
About 34,000 were modified and 22,000 of them issued to the Britishy armed forces eight months ago.
Mr Hoon acknowledged yesterday that continuing problems were "not good enough" and the Government was concerned. He stressed that the complaints would need to be fully investigated before any decision was made.
"We have still to get to the bottom of exactly what those problems are before we make any judgement," Mr Hoon said.
"From time to time some of the rifles are jamming but they are operating in really extreme conditions. It's very, very hot and there is lots of sand. And some of the rifles are being affected by the heat," the minister added.
Speaking yesterday from the Army's firepower demonstrations show on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, Mr Hoon declined to comment on reports that Gordon Brown had approved a £1bn rise in the Defence budget.
He also denied reports that the Chief of Defence Staff, Sir Michael Boyce, was to step down early from his post after falling out with ministers over defence cuts.
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