Kent soldiers preparing to go out to Afghanistan have been stranded at Brize Norton after a technical failure on their plane.

An error with the anti-missile systems on a Tristar C2 military plane has left up to 1,000 troops waiting either to get out into the field or to come home.

Three planes have been grounded as a result of the technical failure while investigations are carried out to find out what caused the fault.

It is not yet known how many troops from the county have been held up at either end - but one Kent soldier who was on a C2 twice turned back yesterday due to the failure claimed the planes are "overworked".

He said: ""The RAF is stretched to the limit. These planes have been in service for decades and are only designed for a high level of traffic for short periods.

"The continuous war in Afghanistan and presence of coalition forces in Iraq has meant these planes have been overworked and has thus led to the problems."

One C2 in Kandahar in Afghanistan is under investigation although it is available for some tasking. Another C2 at Brize Norton is in maintenance.

Flt Lt Mark Concarr, who is based at Brize Norton, said: "For an aircraft to fly out and return like that twice is very unusual. I cannot remember this ever happening before.

"Every airline has its problems but generally our support of the Operational Air Bridge which brings soldiers to and from Afghanistan has been very successful."

A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said: "A spokesman for the MOD said: "The DAS is a complex piece of equipment and prone to problems.

It is not the case that the aircraft is overworked, they are very reliable and could easily have flown off but it wouldn't have been safe for us to do so without the DAS working.

"We have now changed aircraft to a KC1 plane and it should already have taken off."

The Defensive Aid Suite or DAS which failed was only attached to the planes in 2006.

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