**Helicopters to be sent to Afghanistan may not be able to take part in combat because they lack adequate protection, the Daily Telegraph has reported.**Pilots are angry that six Merlins - due to go to Helmand in December - do not have Kevlar armour, the paper says.
It quotes senior RAF sources who warn this could prevent the craft taking part in missions against the Taliban.
Defence chiefs say the Merlins are fitted with ballistic protection and are being modified for operational use.
Pilots told the paper they had called for the Merlin Mk3 helicopters, which will be used to move troops and kit around Helmand, to be upgraded at a cost of around £100,000 each.
Transporting personnel and equipment by air reduces the risk of attack from improvised explosive devices (IEDs), which prey on the need for coalition forces to use slow-moving convoys of heavy vehicles to replenish units.
‘Range of modifications’
However, pilots have claimed their requests for the helicopter upgrades have been ignored and say they fear the lack of protection could risk lives.
“I don’t want people to come back strapped into their seats with bullet holes in them,” a Merlin fleet source told the Telegraph.
“We will continue to provide the greatest level of force protection for both crew and passengers while maintaining performance in Afghanistan’s particularly arduous environment”
Ministry of Defence
“We are going to send aircraft out to Afghanistan that are lacking in the required protection. It will be the same as driving a Snatch Land Rover along a road full of mines.”
However, a Ministry of Defence (MoD) spokesman insisted that the helicopters would be ready for deployment later this year.
“Our Merlin Mk3 helicopters have ballistic protection as standard, and are being fitted with a range of modifications to make them fit for operational use,” he said.
"For reasons of operational security, we do not discuss specific defensive capabilities of our aircraft. To do so would potentially offer enemy forces a tactical advantage.
“Nevertheless, we will continue to provide the greatest level of force protection for both crew and passengers while maintaining performance in Afghanistan’s particularly arduous environment.”
‘Busting a gut’
BBC diplomatic correspondent James Robbins said he understood the problem was not primarily a question of the cost, but instead that factories could not fit all the required protection in time.
The MoD considered it better to get extra helicopters to Afghanistan quickly and then allow commanders to decide on the balance of risk of how to use them, he added.
Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth said last week he was “busting a gut” to get more helicopters out to Afghanistan following suggestions by some military leaders and politicians that there were not enough out there to support British troops.
The chief of the defence staff, Sir Jock Stirrup, said deploying more of the craft would prevent casualties and Foreign Office minister Lord Malloch Brown said there “definitely” were not enough helicopters, before rowing back on his comments.