With an election no more than three months away, a fierce debate is raging in Britain over whether British forces have been properly equipped to fight the Iraq and Afghan wars.
Brown sparked renewed debate on Friday when he gave testimony to an official inquiry investigating Britain's involvement in the Iraq war.
In Afghanistan, Brown told British soldiers in Laskhar Gah, Helmand's capital, that his government would do "everything we can to support you with the equipment necessary and the resources you need." He visited British troops at two front-line bases in the Nad Ali area of southern Afghanistan to thank them for their role in a major three-week-old offensive against Taleban insurgents.
US, British, Afghan and other forces have taken part in Operation Mushtarak, one of the first major tests of US President Barack Obama's plan to add 30,000 troops to win control of Taleban strongholds.
Britain's opposition Conservatives and some ex-generals accuse Brown -- through 10 years as finance minister and three as prime minister -- of denying military funds needed for vital equipment such as helicopters and armored vehicles.
The Conservatives, who lead in opinion polls, accused Brown of rushing to visit troops to divert attention from his testimony to the Iraq inquiry.
Brown denied it, saying he had planned the visit -- almost certainly his last before the election -- for some time.
"It's really important to come at this stage to see what progress has been made on this first operation under a new phase of action in Afghanistan," he told reporters on arrival at Camp Bastion, a military base in the southern province of Helmand.
Brown told the Iraq inquiry on Friday that joining the 2003 US-led invasion had been the right decision and denied he had left the military short of funding. But his testimony was disputed by several former military commanders.
"To say Gordon Brown has given the military all they asked for is simply not true," Charles Guthrie, a former chief of the defense staff, told The Daily Telegraph.
Families of some British soldiers killed in Afghanistan and Iraq have said inadequate equipment led to unnecessary deaths.
Another British soldier was killed in Helmand on Saturday, bringing the total who died in Afghanistan to 269.
Brown, aware of the political damage the charges could do him, has been at pains since becoming prime minister to increase the supply of armored vehicles and helicopters to Britain's 9,500 troops in Afghanistan.
One of the main criticisms has been over the use in Iraq and Afghanistan of lightly armored Snatch Land Rovers, which critics say give too little protection from bombs. At least 37 British soldiers have been killed in them since 2005.
Defense Secretary Bob Ainsworth will soon announce plans to buy some 200 new vehicles, at a cost of more than 100 million pounds, to replace Snatch Land Rovers, a British government official said. They should enter service by late 2011, he said.
Britain will also send 150 new instructors to train Afghan police, almost doubling the 100 to 150 already there. Britain and other NATO countries are stepping up training of Afghan security forces so NATO troops can eventually withdraw.
Defense spending is expected to come under severe pressure in future because of the need to cut the British budget deficit.
