Military personnel spend 141 days on Top Gear stunts

The Ministry of Defence has been forced to answer more awkward questions about how it allocates resources after admitting that military personnel spent the equivalent of 141 days taking part in stunts for the television show Top Gear. It has also deployed equipment worth billions of pounds in scenes for the show in the past five years.

The MoD insisted that taking part in the BBC show was a valuable way of raising public awareness of the armed forces' work.

In response to a Freedom of Information Act request from the Press Association, the MoD revealed that military personnel were involved in filming for the equivalent of 141 days, while civilian officials spent 48 days working on items for the programme.

The revelation comes a week after the MoD was sharply criticised by the families of soldiers killed in Afghanistan after it admitted in another FoI request that it paid civil servants bonuses totalling £47m in the first seven months of this financial year.

The latest admission will heap further embarrassment on the ministry at a time when it is facing repeated complaints about the way frontline troops are equipped for the increasingly bloody campaign in Afghanistan.

In 2004 an Apache helicopter gunship attempted to get a missile lock on a Lotus Exige sports car driven by presenter Jeremy Clarkson. A year later, Clarkson took on a Challenger tank with a Range Rover and then attempted to avoid sniper fire while testing a Porsche Boxster and Mercedes SLK.

In 2006 it was the turn of his co-presenter Richard Hammond to take on the military, racing a Porsche Cayenne against a parachutist from the elite Red Devils display team.

The aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal was used as the backdrop to a film on the luxury Rolls Royce Phantom in 2007. In the same year an RAF Typhoon raced a Bugatti Veyron at RAF Coningsby airfield. The two biggest events each involved the equivalent of more than 60 personnel.

In November 2008, Clarkson took part in a beach assault with the Royal Marines while driving a Ford Fiesta. The event involved the equivalent of 63 days' worth of time from the marines and equipment including Lynx helicopters and amphibious landing craft.

In May 2009 Clarkson played a game of "British bulldog" against some of the army's latest armoured vehicles at Bovington training area. The item required 60 days of soldiers' time and involved five military vehicles.

In its response to the Freedom of Information request, the MoD said no additional cost was incurred as a result of taking part in the programmes. It added that, had it wanted to advertise on ITV, it would have cost it £50,000 for every 30 seconds.

In a statement the MoD said: "The Top Gear filming took place during scheduled training hours. In no circumstances were resources diverted from other activities to support this filming. It is common for the media to cover military training exercises.

"Showcasing our people and equipment on popular television programmes is an excellent way to raise public awareness about the work of the armed forces and to encourage support for our troops."