Fire sale: MoD puts helicopters, armoured Jags and Snatch Land Rovers up for sale to plug £36bn 'black hole'

Aug 15 2011 3PM
By Christopher Leake and Richard Hartley-parkinson

Last updated at 9:54 AM on 15th August 2011


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It's quite a novel way to try and plug a £36bn hole in a budget, but the Ministry of Defence has decided to sell millions of pounds of equipment for a fraction of the cost.
Among the items on offer there are Gazelle helicopters (reduced from £5m to £100,000), armoured Jaguars (cut from £200,000 to as little as £12,000) and Snatch Land Rovers (retail price £65,000 but for you £2,000).
They are among a host of other items such as luxury watches that you might expect to see on the wrist of James Bond rather than someone on the front line.
Price chopper: Gazelle helicopters were bought for £5million but are going for £100,000
No armour plated pricing here: These MoD Jaguars are selling for between £12,000 and £25,000 - a fraction of their original £200,000 cost
There are 14 helicopters up for grabs and motorbikes are going for a snip at between £650 and £1,250. The HMS Ark Royal has so far reached £3.5million on eBay - it cost £200m originally.
There are other less obvious pieces of kit on sale including a £6,000 fridge that is advertised at £920, ships' mattresses, a dentist's chair and a 100ft girder bridge that spans 100ft.

For James Bond, a watch does far more than tell the time. It can kill your enemies with a single shot, fire wires into the air so you can swing between buildings, and even undo the zip on your sultry opponent’s dress.
In the real world, expensive timepieces have long been handed out to spies, undercover SAS troops and female intelligence operatives working at British embassies abroad so they could more easily pass themselves off as well-heeled diplomats.
But now these luxury watches – and an extraordinary array of other items from clothing to ships and aircraft – are being sold off at knockdown prices as the Ministry of Defence tries to fill a £36billion hole in its budget.
The ‘unused as new’ watches do not carry an asking price on the defence agency website on which they are advertised. But with other items in the ‘sale’ on offer for a tenth of their original price, it is thought that the watches will fetch only a fraction of their true value.
Scrambling for a good deal: A man works on some ex-MoD motorbikes that will sell for up to £1,250

A snatch: These Land Rovers are expected to fetch between £1,500 and £4,500. They were £65,000 new
They include a Raymond Weil Tango men’s watch – ‘Stainless steel case, black dial with red accented hands, luminous Arabic numbers, sapphire crystal glass’ – that would normally sell for £1,000, and a ladies Crystal Dior watch – ‘Bezel set with 48 diamonds 0.24 carat, black lacquered dial, black rubber strap set with black sapphire crystal’ – worth £4,000.
The MoD is also offering a gents Maurice Lacroix three-dial chronograph watch – ‘Sapphire crystal scratch resistant glass, white square dial with luminous hands’ – that would normally retail at about £5,000.
For comparison, when Daniel Craig reprised his role as James Bond in Quantum Of Solace, he was wearing an OMEGA Seamaster Planet Ocean 600m Co-Axial Chronometer with a black dial. Its price new is £4,275.
A source said: ‘These watches were bought for SAS and defence intelligence operatives who work at our embassies abroad, so they look the part when they go to events and parties attended by diplomats and local dignitaries. It’s all part of creating the right image.’
Among the other items on the MoD’s Defence Equipment & Sales website are brand-new combat jackets ordered for the SAS (£350 new, on sale for £30); boxes of pencils, knives and forks; a £6,000 fridge on sale for £920; ships’ mattresses; and even a portable dentist’s chair.
There are even some luxury watches up for grabs, more likely to be seen on the wrist of James Bond than a front-line fighter

Sinking prices: HMS Ark Royal cost £200m to build - it's currently going for £3.5m on eBay
The MoD is trying to raise even more money by offering everything from Army braces, foot warmers and Scottish regimental kilts to trainers, socks, a Guards peaked cap and a host of office and medical equipment.
A source said: ‘The MoD is so desperate to balance the books that they’re selling everything imaginable.’
Conservative MP Patrick Mercer, a former infantry commander, said last night: ‘The one thing of which you can be certain is that once precious defence equipment is sold, it will be needed again within the week. It is like selling the family silver.

'These goods have cost us millions and now they are being sold for peanuts. That cannot be right.’
By the time the sales of aircraft, ships, military bases and tanks are added, the sale could bring in around £4billion – still leaving the MoD well short of its savings target, despite cutting thousands of military and civilian jobs.
In a separate venture to generate revenue, the MoD has catalogued its extensive art collection, which includes famous oils of Nelson – and is selling prints at £18 a time online.
Senior military officers are said to be furious at the sell-offs, which they claim are giving away quality equipment while the forces need everything they can get.
For the more technically minded, the MoD is offering a helicopter cockpit simulator or a 100ft-wide girder bridge used by the Royal Engineers.
An MoD spokesman said: ‘We are committed to delivering the best possible return for the taxpayer when disposing of surplus equipment.
‘Last year alone the Disposal Services Authority (part of Defence Equipment and Support) secured £84million from sales.’