12 August 2008

Chucking our money away

Look, don't be like that - it was only £227,000,000.

The Times reports on the Ministry of Defence's latest snafu:
As a spy drone, it had its disadvantages. To land, it had to flip on its back. It could not operate in extreme heat or in thin air and became known as the “bugger off” because it frequently did, never to return.
The Phoenix unmanned air vehicle, which cost an estimated £300,000 each and was brought into service with the British Army in 1998 after a protracted development programme, is now officially dead.
MPs on the Commons Defence Committee revealed in a report published last week that the Phoenix, which provided target information for the Army's artillery regiments from an operating height of about 9,000ft, was unable to cope with the heat in Iraq when it was deployed in 2003. It had to be used only in the cooler months. The Ministry of Defence also confirmed that it was never sent to Afghanistan because the air was too thin there.
The Phoenix has now been taken out of service and replaced by a more sophisticated aerial spy platform called Hermes 450.
Are heads likely to roll? What do you think ...

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