Aside from the friendly fire incidents and being attacked by people who hate them, Britain's soldiers have another problem to cope with: randomly firing machine guns. Troops aboard the Army's 800 Warrior personnel carriers are all at risk of being gunned down by no one at all because of a defect that causes the carrier's 400-round-per-minute guns to fire.

The Ministry of Defence has allegedly known of the problem for nearly five years, but refuses to remove or pay for repairs to the weapons. Instead they've issued a warning to be wary of the guns. In addition to the "undemanded fire," the turrets of the guns also spontaneously rotate and their rear doors have popped open.

According to Britain's Armed Forces Minister, Adam Ingram, the risk posed by the problem is "very low" - words probably less than comforting to the soldier who lost his right leg to a Warrior's gunshots last year.

» Scott Saxon