Oh for heaven's sake (with update)

Words all but fail me on reading this Telegraph report:

'The Royal Air Force's most advanced warplanes have been unable to drop bombs on Libyan targets because defence spending cuts mean that pilots are not fully trained, The Telegraph can disclose.

The Ministry of Defence announced last week that RAF Typhoons would drop bombs on Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's tanks and other ground targets.

But so far this has not happened, because the planes' pilots are not considered to be properly trained in ground attacks.

In a further embarrassment, laser targeting pods for the Typhoons, which cost £160 million, have been left in packing crates because the RAF has not been able to pay for its pilots to train to use them.

Nato leaders have said that more international military power is needed in Libya, as the rebels struggle to make progress against Gaddafi forces.

Four of the 10 Typhoons based at Gioia del Colle in southern Italy were to be sent on bombing missions until the RAF realised that pilots were not qualified to drop weapons.

...

A National Audit Office report this year said that only eight of their pilots were trained in ground attack operations.

It has since emerged that pilots were "out of date" on training, having completed their ground attack courses three years ago. RAF insiders said the MoD failed to fund annual refresher courses.

A senior RAF officer said: "The guys are not considered safe to drop live bombs on live targets. '

Thank you Gordon Brown for so denuding our armed forces of funding that we don't have any pilots considered safely trained to drop bombs. If the first duty of a government is to defend the country then you failed. If you ever came to the House of Commons maybe there would be a chance of you being held to account for this failure. If the media in this country was not so supine maybe they would ask you to answer for your failures not that you would answer the questions.


UPDATE:
Sky News report that:

'The RAF Typhoon multirole jet has for the first time deployed its weapons on operations - destroying two of Colonel Gaddafi's tanks.

...

Flying a joint mission with Tornado GR4 aircraft over Libya on Tuesday evening, a Typhoon dropped two Paveway II bombs.

...

Responding to reports that there were an insufficient number of Typhoon pilots trained in air to ground attack, AVM Osborn said that although Typhoon was due to be fully multirole capable by 2015 the UK is "deploying early capability to meet the needs" of the Nato mission.

"We would not deploy capability if we couldn't support it."'