LONDON, March 18 (UPI) -- The British Ministry of Defense has been slammed by a parliamentary committee for spending $498 million on helicopters that cannot fly on a cloudy day.
The Chinook helicopters are grounded in cloudy weather because the software that enables them to fly through clouds could not be properly tested.
The cross-party Public Accounts Committee branded the Chinook saga, which began in July 1995, "one of the worst examples of equipment procurement the committee has ever seen."
Committee chairman Edward Leigh, a Conservative member of parliament, said, "It is simply disgraceful that the MoD has spent half a billion dollars of taxpayers' money on the botched procurement of eight Chinook helicopters that cannot be flown because the MoD can't determine if they're safe."
The purchase exacerbated the "alarming" shortage of battlefield helicopters, it said.
The committee said the gap between the number of helicopters needed and those available to the Ministry of Defense was between 20 and 38 percent.
It also warned of shortfalls in helicopter protection equipment, nuclear, biological and chemical protection for aircrew, and communications capacity.
