UK sent Kyiv large supplies of old military equipment, watchdog finds

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Much of the military aid the UK has given to Ukraine has consisted of old equipment, such as army boots that otherwise would have had to be thrown away, according to a spending watchdog.

Military gear that was “often due to be scrapped or replaced” was prioritised by the Ministry of Defence because it was believed to have “immediate military value” to Ukraine — but sending it to Kyiv also “reduced waste or costs relating to disposal”, the National Audit Office said on Wednesday.

The ministry also used other “innovative ways of sourcing military equipment”, such as reverse-engineering replacement tracks for Soviet-era T72 tanks from samples at a tank museum in Dorset, the NAO noted.

The findings come as some of Kyiv’s western allies tire of supporting Ukraine almost three years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion.

The £7.8bn of military aid the UK has pledged or already sent to Kyiv make it the third-largest supplier of western support to Ukraine after the US at £56.5bn, and Germany at £16.2bn, the NAO said. The UK has pledged to continue providing £3bn a year of military aid.

Other western allies have also given ageing equipment to Kyiv: in one recent US example, ten donated vehicles ostensibly worth more than $7mn had a combined book value of zero.

However, ageing military equipment cleared from British stockpiles was only a small portion of total UK aid sent to Ukraine, because it had a book value of just £171.5mn versus an estimated replacement cost of £2.7bn. Three-quarters of it also came during the first year of the invasion.

The UK spent a further £2.4bn on procuring equipment, contributed £500mn to an international fund, and spent £830mn on operational support, some channelled via Nato.

“As the MoD plans its future support, it must continue to balance the UK’s strategic interests with maintaining the UK’s own military capabilities,” Gareth Davies, head of the NAO, said in a statement. “This includes making sure there are appropriate stocks of equipment and sufficient training provision for UK forces,” he added.

The NAO also raised concerns that the basic training the UK has given to more than 42,000 Ukrainian recruits did not always equip them fully for the frontline, in part because of UK regulations.

Although 89 per cent of the latest cohort of trainees said the course had left them “better equipped to survive on the battlefield”, many complained about a lack of training on how to cope with drone warfare. The NAO said this was because of civil aviation rules, which the MoD was trying to work around.

While the NAO did not provide a strategic assessment of the UK military aid programme, its report gave generally high marks to the MoD and its procurement processes, so often a subject of sharp criticism.

The NAO said the urgent need to provide Kyiv with military kit initially meant the MoD used “single source” contracts for procurement deals.

Although this raised the risk of “poor value for money by removing competition”, the NAO did not identify any examples of wasteful corruption from 80 such contracts, worth £1.27bn.

The MoD had learned some lessons, the NAO said, including how to speed up procurement to deliver air-defence equipment to Kyiv in just six weeks instead of the “one to two years it would normally take”. 

One finding concerned the value of UK military supplies. The report cited 17,000 pairs of army boots, which the UK donated in March 2022. The shoes were nearing the end of their usable life and, if not sold, “would have been sent to landfill”.

In another example, the NAO said the 14 Challenger 2 tanks sent in 2023 had a book value of just £17mn, compared to their original purchase price at the end of the 1990s of £47mn.

One defence official, not involved in the audit, said: “The war has tested our stockpiles, but it’s a good thing for us that we have cleared out old kit and can now replace it with new equipment.”

The UK has so far set aside £2.5bn to replenish its stockpiles depleted by the war. In April, the previous Conservative government pledged £10bn in investment to boost munitions productions over the next decade.

Bolstering Britain’s defence industry is also expected to be a priority in the “root and branch” defence review launched by the Labour government in July.

The MoD said it welcomed the report, which “recognises that Ukrainian troops are better prepared to defend their country from Russia’s illegal invasion thanks to the UK providing training”.

The MoD added that it was committed to replacing the equipment and munitions it had donated.