A FORMER tank commander is calling on the MoD to scrap all road travel in Afghanistan by British troops saying they should travel only by air – even if it means commandeering civilian helicopters to make up a shortfall in military choppers.
Military expert Stuart Crawford, a retired lieutenant-colonel in the 4th Royal Tank Regiment who served in the 1991 Gulf war, spoke out after the deaths of two soldiers in vulnerable Viking vehicles.
Lt Col Rupert Thorneloe and Trooper Joshua Hammond were killed at the weekend when their Viking struck a Taliban roadside bomb, bringing the vehicle’s death toll to 20.
The Viking vehicles are due to be replaced next year by more than 100 larger and more heavily armoured tracked vehicles, known as Warthogs.
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Deadline Press & Picture Agency 