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Defence Procurement

Let me make a little progress. I have given way a lot and I do not want to hog the debate. Our largest future programme for the Army is the future rapid effect system— FRES. It will consist of a family of vehicles that have high levels of protection but which are capable of being transported by air, thus allowing troops to deploy rapidly across the globe. The first variant will be the utility vehicle, and we announced the acquisition strategy at the end of last year. Since then, we have conducted trials of potential vehicle designs and we will announce the results next month. Last week, my noble Friend Lord Drayson announced that a team from Thales UK and Boeing had been selected almost two months ahead of schedule as the system of systems integrator—SOSI. That represents excellent progress.