A British soldier in Iraq

London, July 17: Soldiers are facing the undignified prospect of being forced to shout “bang, bang” on military training exercises after an admission by the British army that it is running out of blank ammunition.

The shortage is also likely to result in a large number of important training exercises being cancelled or severely restricted.

The crisis has emerged at a time when the army is operating at full-stretch with up to 9,000 troops deployed in Iraq and 4,000 training for a possible deployment to Afghanistan next spring.

The astonishing admission that soldiers do not have enough blank ammunition comes after disclosures of other crucial equipment shortages earlier this year ? including insufficient training rounds for grenade launchers and cleaning kits for machine-guns.

Details of the fiasco emerged after a letter from the Headquarters Land Command, the organisation responsible for training the army in Britain, was leaked to The Sunday Telegraph.

The letter, dated June 24 2005, is headed “Shortage of 5.56 mm Blank Ammunition for Cadet Force’s Summer Camp” and reveals that the problem has been caused by the Defence Logistics Organisation’s failure to anticipate how much blank ammunition would be needed over the summer.

The letter from Headquarters Land Command states that the army has informed the Cadet Branch “that there is expected to be a significant shortage of 5.56 mm blank ammunition this summer”.

The 5.56 mm ammunition is the standard round used with the SA80 semi-automatic assault rifle. Blank rounds fit into standard-issue magazines and emit a loud noise, meant to simulate rifle fire.

The letter continues: “This is an army-wide issue and has been brought about as supply has not been anticipated to meet demand.”