A shortage of spare parts has left about half of the Royal Navy's helicopters being unavailable for service. The shortage is most keenly felt with replacement engines for the Lynx helicopter (which is widely used by European navies). The problem can be traced back to a consolidation of helicopter maintenance in the British armed forces there years ago. New computer software to keep track of maintenance and spare parts was flawed, a problem that was not noted until there were not enough spare parts to go around. The spares problem is not expected to be fixed until early 2003.