POLICE will spend £35,000 on satellite equipment for an incident command vehicle.
Officers in North Yorkshire found that the vehicle's communication equipment suffered in remote parts of the county.
The holiday home-style truck and a similar lorry for firearms incidents were bought in October 2002 for more than £500,000.
The major incident vehicle has been used on operations during protests at the Menwith Hill spy base, near Harrogate.
Chief Constable Della Cannings admitted that neither vehicle had seen heavy use.
She said: "They are not the kind of vehicle you will see every day. They have to be there for special reasons. We use these vehicles in a variety of ways, not just waiting for big incidents.
"We use them for training exercises, but we don't just bring them out all the time because they are expensive.
"These vehicles were commissioned in the days when the school of thought was to make do with the best we can afford."
North Yorkshire Police Authority has agreed to release £35,637 to pay for the communication equipment over the next five years.
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