UN Mission in Mali: Armed Forces Deployment

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 2:16 pm on 9 December 2020.

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Photo of James Heappey James Heappey The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence 2:16, 9 December 2020

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his question. The environment in Mali requires a balance between ballistic protection against the threat of improvised explosive devices, and an environmental challenge where heavy rain and mud can easily lead to heavy vehicles getting bogged in. It is our assessment that Foxhound, Ridgeback, Coyote and Jackal—all of which were purchased for the Afghanistan deployment, have proved themselves against a far more severe IED threat than the one in Mali, and have been upgraded in the decades since—achieve that balance between the ballistic protection required against an IED threat such as this and the environmental challenge of such weather as is likely to be experienced in Mali.