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Afghanistan: Peacekeeping Operations

Answer

Officials are collating and validating the data needed and this is taking longer than anticipated. I will write to the hon. Member when this work is complete and place a copy of my letter in the Library of the House. Substantive answer from Bob Ainsworth to Liam Fox: "I am writing to provide you with the information promised in my predecessor's holding reply to your Parliamentary Questions regarding ammunition expenditure in Afghanistan on 11 February 2009, (Official Report, column 1992W), and 26 February 2009, (Official Report, column 1050W). The Ministry of Defence has recently completed a review of the data on ammunition usage required to answer this question, and has revised the manner in which we classify and present data to ensure consistency. The table below shows all ammunition expenditure for UK forces in Afghanistan from the beginning of retained records (August 2006) to the end of Operation HERRICK 9 (October 2008- April 2009), in April of this year. You will note that, unfortunately, this review has resulted in corrections to the ammunition figures previously issued for the HERRICK 6 (April 2007 - October 2007) and HERRICK 7 (October 2007 - April 2008) roulements. These figures have been found to be incorrect due inconsistency of tour dates taken, inconsistency of inclusion of training rounds and a failure to include all variations of ammunition in all cases." Ammunition type HERRICK 4 (13 August 2006 - October 2006)( 1) HERRICK 5 (October 2006 - April 2007) HERRICK 6 (April 2007 -October 2007) HERRICK 7 (October 2007 - April 2008) HERRICK 8 (April 2008 - October 2008) HERRICK 9 (October 2008 - April 2009) 7.62mm all variants 210,000 520,000 1,300,000 1,380,000 700,000 908,400 5.56mm all variants 235,000 615,000 1,490,000 1,390,000 1,000,000 1,080,000 0.5 inch all variants 25,000 90,000 200,000 180,000 113,000 196,000 12.7mm all variants 2,400 350 4,800 21,000 13,000 10,600 9mm all variants 10,000 69,000 30,000 69,000 71,700 61,400 0.338 inch all variants 200 1,700 5,600 7,300 8,200 12,100 12 bore shotgun all variants 5 45 660 15,100 300 525 105mm all variants 8,600 4,300 12,100 12,400 5,600 11,200 30mm armd fighting veh rounds 1,200 5,000 3,600 2,800 745 4,500 30mm Attack helicopter rounds 29,800 21,000 27,800 15,700 34,400 34,200 (1) Accounting records exist only from 13 August 2006 - mid HERRICK 4 Notes: All tour dates are taken from the Transfer of Authority from one Brigade to the next. All figures rounded to nearest 10,000, 1000 or 100. "Ammunition expenditure is shown for the whole of Afghanistan, rather than just Helmand Province as the information is collated centrally for UK forces in Afghanistan. The data includes all training rounds used and all variants of each ammunition type. It is collated by each HERRICK roulement, at the end of which the data is finalised for records. All data shown above is data based on information derived from a number of sources and can only be an estimate, not least because of the difficulties in ensuring a consistent interpretation of the basis for collating statistics in a complex fast-moving multinational operational environment."

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

496 c1791W; 251707

Session

2008-09

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Notes

Supplements answer on 11 February 2009 at 487 c1992-3W

Subjects

Peacekeeping operations Afghanistan

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk