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Defence in the World

I am grateful for the hon. Gentleman’s comments about my nice little speech. I thank him for his nice little speech. Unfortunately, it is wrong. It assumes that bigger is better. He seems to have forgotten the lesson of Trafalgar, even within a fortnight of the 200th anniversary, that our side was smaller than the French and Spanish fleet. Nelson had 27 ships, compared with the 33 in the fleet he faced. He won, because fighting capability and power cannot be equated with the number of vessels. Fighting power depends on the technology on the vessels, how well trained are the men and women aboard, and the morale of the troops. The training and morale of Nelson’s troops gave him a huge advantage over the French and Spanish. Let us bring the question to the modern world? Is it possible to have smaller numbers and greater capability? Of course, it is. For example, there were far fewer air sorties in the second Gulf war than in the first Gulf war but they hit far more targets because they used different technologically directed bombs—so-called ““smart”” bombs as opposed to dumb bombs. Let us consider the number of ships that are necessary for the United States to put out two, three or four carrier task groups. Because of the building of ships nowadays, there is a far higher return on the fleet on the sea active than would have been the case 10 or 15 years ago. That is why Defence Secretary Rumsfeld’s prediction, when he worked for the Reagan Administration, that his fleet then would be twice the size of the one that he has now does not mean that his smaller fleet now is less capable. It is not. Although I respect the hon. Gentleman’s work on the Public Accounts Committee, it is a false to assume that one necessarily has less capability because one has smaller numbers. That is patently not the case. Otherwise we would have retained conscription in this country and would have 200,000, 300,000 or 400,000 soldiers who were very good at painting Nissen huts black and white but not very good at the front in a war.