A HELICOPTER, Land Rover patrols and soldiers under the command of a regimental sergeant-major have failed to find an inflatable tank that was lost in the weekend’s gales.

The loose cannon with a difference was still at large in South Wales yesterday after 96mph winds ripped the lifesize “decoy” from its moorings and sent it cartwheeling into the night.

The rubber tank officially a “pneumatic deception device” is the size of three cars and worth more than £10,000. It was being used by soldiers as part of a training exercise.

Troops spent yesterday scouring more than 200 square miles of countryside around Trefil, near Tredegar. Officers have told police, aviation authorities and local farmers to be ready for its reappearance.

The model battle tank was one of six that were borrowed from the RAF for Cambrian Patrol, a war games competition for military personnel.

The tanks, which have been in service for about 15 years, are used as decoys and it is not the first time that the Army has mislaid one. In 1992, after a war games exercise involving 88 inflatable tanks, three went missing. They were never recovered.

Regimental Sergeant-Major Brian Pratt, who was organising the hunt for the tank, said: “How do you lose something as big as that? The irony is that we choose that terrain because of its severe weather conditions.” As he spoke, children in the village of Trefil were playing “spot the tank”.

Sergeant-Major Pratt, added: “According to the wind direction it would be heading towards Abergavenny. But it could be anywhere.”

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