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Defence Procurement

My hon. Friend is correct. I think that a recent United States defence budget had 9,000 tags, or attachments, when it went through the appropriations committee; members of Congress were deciding that their naval base needed a new set of front gates, and the ejector seat for the new aircraft should be cancelled. That is not the way to go about it. We needed some clear answers from the Minister. The debate is about procurement. There were many opportunities for him to update us. The fact that he missed out the defence trade co-operation treaty is important. Inevitably, it will come before the House for a vote. This might have been an opportunity to flag it up. I want to place on record my appreciation of the work of Andrew Radford and the British embassy in Washington. He has done an amazing job in negotiating that treaty with the US State Department. It is a very good document. I hope that the House will support it when it goes through. It is good news for us and for the US. I will watch carefully how the hon. Member for Grantham and Stamford (Mr. Davies) votes, given his remarks about the European defence market. Surely he will be against such a treaty. We will watch how his new party welcomes him through the Lobby. We will see how long that view of European defence lasts. We could use some good examples from the future rapid effect system about how we need to push forward. I am worried about FRES. It started with a weight requirement of 17 tonnes and the No. 1 priority of being air-mobile and of being able to go back in the A400M. The weight requirement has recently changed: it is now up to 27 tonnes. In our procurement of the A400M, we seek a lift capability of only 26 tonnes. The Germans have gone for 30. Currently, therefore, we could be on course to lose that air mobility. Another thing about FRES could have been clarified. It was supposed to be manufactured in the United Kingdom. That was one of the main issues. If the FRES project means that our vehicles can no longer be air-mobile, we may have to get into the realms of answering the question: what will the Conservatives do when it comes to finding money for defence projects? There was the mess of spending £190 million on the TRACER programme and the multi-role armoured vehicle project from 1998. That was just a waste. Two projects—one a United States project and one a European consortium project—have been cancelled, and it has cost the taxpayer £190 million. Perhaps we could talk about the mistakes made with the SA80 rifle, or the brand-new chairs for the MOD headquarters. There are examples within the MOD budget that show a woeful lack of accounting. That could be improved. As an ex-guardsman, I know this is minor, but we spend money looking for replacements of bearskins to satisfy one politically correct lobby or another. Most bearskins have lasted for 100 years. We do not need to scout around for artificial replacements at the cost of hundreds of pounds, which we would no doubt have to find elsewhere. We were looking for answers today, and I am disappointed that we have not really had them. One answer that I would like from the Minister now is whether we will commit to the blue force tracking programme in the United States, to ensure that friendly fire incidents between our allies and ourselves are minimised as soon as possible.