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Ministry of Defence

The hon. Gentleman is making a powerful argument that what matters is not how much money is spent, but when it is spent. Page 7 of the Defence Committee report explains away the large capital investment for urgent operational requirements by referring to the purchase of, for example, force protection equipment. Given that the technology used in improvised explosive devices—shaped charges—has been around since the second world war and was used in Bosnia and Kosovo, why was the money to protect against that threat not spent at the start, when probably half the amount that is having to be spent now would have been required?