The Defence Secretary insisted today that British forces in Afghanistan were "better equipped than they have ever been" after the death of the first UK infantry commander to have been killed in action since the Falklands war.

Lieutenant-Colonel Rupert Thorneloe, commanding officer of the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards, died when his Viking vehicle was blown up near Lashkar Gah in Helmand province on Wednesday.

Another soldier, 18-year-old Trooper Joshua Hammond of the 2nd Royal Tank Regiment, was killed in the same attack and six others were wounded, some of them critically.

The Viking, a tracked armoured vehicle, has been used in Afghanistan for three years but the Ministry of Defence was forced last year to admit its vulnerability to the more powerful roadside bombs developed by the Taleban.

The cross-country vehicles are due to be replaced for operations by larger and more heavily armed tracked vehicles known as Warthogs.

The MoD today denied reports of a "high-level inquiry" into the officer's death that would focus on the use of the Viking.

"Any death on operations is deeply regretted and investigations are always carried out to analyse the circumstances surrounding what happened," a spokesman said. "The deaths of Lieutenant-Colonel Rupert Thorneloe and Trooper Joshua Hammond will be treated in the same way.”

In Exeter, where he was attending a full-pomp homecoming parade for soldiers who had served in Afghanistan, Bob Ainsworth, the Defence Secretary, was asked whether Colonel Farneloe had been travelling in a suitable vehicle.

He replied: “If you ask anybody in Afghanistan they will tell you our forces there are better equipped then they’ve ever been.

“There’s been a fantastic improvement in the last couple of years, both in personal equipment and vehicles as well. We’re bringing in as many new vehicles out there as we can."

Mr Ainsworth said bringing in more helicopters would not reduce the risk faced by troops on the ground: “We can’t conduct the kind of operations that we need to conduct in Afghanistan from the air.

"Of course helicopters are needed – we’re moving the Merlin helicopter across from Iraq – but ask the guys doing the job, they can’t conduct the operation in great big massive vehicles all the time, they need a range of vehicles.

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