The former UK Chief of Defence Staff said: "Britain is at war, but one would never know it walking around Whitehall. For too many politicians it is merely another day of awkward things happening in far away places.

"The conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan appear no more than inconvenient blips - something to be muddled through until things return to normal."

Incompetence

In a column in The Times newspaper Lord Guthrie wrote: "And muddle is the word, as was manifest in a scathing report into defence procurement leaked this week.

"Its author, the former Labour adviser Bernard Gray, an experienced observer of the defence scene, blamed incompetence and "political fudge" for £35billion of defence project overspending.

"Moreover, The Times revealed that poor decisions about software have kept eight Chinook helicopters, costing a total of £259million, in climate-controlled hangars during the Iraq and Afghan conflicts.

"Such an error would never happen in the private sector without dismissals and a plain identification of where the buck stopped.

"The revelation is all the more appalling because Chinooks are lifesavers. They are the safest way to evacuate injured soldiers from the battlefield - and a brilliant tactical device to get behind Taliban lines to confuse and mystify the enemy.

"Chinooks also help resupply and reinforcement where land movement is dangerous.

"That we have insufficient available for our needs in Afghanistan is best explained by the size and structure of the Ministry of Defence. The department employs 87,000 civilian staff for 175,000 servicemen and women.

"At the head of this unwieldy edifice are six ministers, each enjoying a private office and their own staff - six private empires, with their own turf to be jealously guarded. Sadly, bigger does not mean more efficient; usually quite the opposite.

"Ministers change, but permanent staff ought to be there to provide continuity and experience. Unfortunately, too many senior civil servants in today's MoD lack a defence background.

"Instead, they are parachuted in to lead this complex department with little idea of how it works."

Meanwhile figures showed the Armed Forces are thousands of personnel short of requirements.

Despite improvements in recruitment and retention in recent years, the three services need 4,460 extra men and women between them to hit their target levels.

Latest manpower statistics from the Ministry of Defence (MoD) revealed the combined strength of the Army, Naval Service and Royal Air Force to be 174,010 - only 97.5 per cent of the 178,470 required.

However, that was up from the 96.8 per cent last summer and the MoD stressed fewer people were leaving and more joining the forces.