Military bosses were forced to close all assault courses after dangerous rotting ropes were installed by mistake.
One new recruit narrowly avoided a potentially fatal fall when a climbing cord became dislodged.
The faulty cable turned out to have been made from organic hemp instead of the required plastic, making it likely to rot when exposed to the elements. A safety alert went out to all 4,000 sites on the Defence Infrastructure Organisation estate – putting vital training equipment out of action.
The blunder is the latest in a string of errors in the Ministry of Defence that have led to £13billion being wasted on faulty equipment, admin errors and cancelled contracts since the Tories came to power in 2010.
Labour says the wasted money could have saved the jobs of 25,000 troops. A dossier compiled by the party claims around £4billion has gone down the drain since 2019 – enough to build four Type 45 Destroyers.
The failures include £5million spent on “useless ear defenders”, £594million on the cancelled Warrior armoured vehicles and £32.6million on fines for poor accounting standards.
Shadow Defence Secretary John Healey said: “Ministers are failing British troops and taxpayers. These Ministry of Defence errors threaten the safety of service personnel and waste taxpayers’ money.
“The MoD is a uniquely failing department. Labour in government would commission an across-the-board audit of MoD waste and make the MoD the first department subject to our new Office for Value of Money’s tough regime on spending decisions.”
The Ministry of Defence said: “A safety inspection of outdoor ropes was ordered last year after one rope was found to have weather damage, which reflects our absolute commitment to safety. If any other ropes need replacing, they will be.”
