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Afghanistan: UK Forces

My Lords, let me be crystal clear about funding. There is no sense in which this operation is done to a budget. The operation funding does not come within the MoD’s defence budget; the £1 billion over five years, within which there is a three-year deployment, comes from the reserve. There is no question of the military being restricted to flying so many hours. It is about managing and planning the operation so that the availability of aircraft, flight crews, spares and logistics is managed coherently, taking into account the fact that we expect this to be a long campaign. This is about sustainability and managing our resources effectively. I say again that, if we require additional resources to do the job, they will be provided.