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Defence Procurement

My hon. Friend is entirely right. One of the problems of a vehicle's remaining in service for so long is that, given the number of updates that it undergoes, a basic imbalance emerges between the various parts of the fighting system. I am simply using the CVRT as an example. The CVRT will be replaced by FRES. The Minister for the Armed Forces and my hon. Friend the Member for Woodspring (Dr. Fox) both referred to that, and it is only right that they should do so in a debate on defence procurement. FRES is a 3,000-vehicle programme that will cost approximately £14 billion. It is disgraceful that we are having this debate in 2007—I shall come on to the issue of the in-service date in a moment—because as an operations officer of an armoured reconnaissance regiment back in 1988, I was beginning to discuss the shape of the replacement for the CVRT. That was nearly 20 years ago. The Defence Committee has done an excellent job in its report on FRES, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading in the record of the evidence the exchange between the hon. Member for North Durham (Mr. Jones) and Sir Peter Spencer on the issue of the in-service date.