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Defence Procurement

No, I am not convinced that a decision on a number of aircraft could yet be made. Nevertheless, it would be helpful to have a rather better indication than the current one of somewhere between 36 and 150. Essentially, the defence of this country has to be based on what we need to defend ourselves. We have been told by the Ministry of Defence that this decision will be taken on the basis of what we can afford. That obviously must be a very serious consideration in this decision, but the first duty of Government is to be able to defend the country, and that will require a suitable number of joint strike fighters. The future rapid effect system—FRES—used to be more than just a vehicle acquisition programme, but that is what it seems to have become. As a vehicle acquisition programme, I believe it to be this country's most important procurement, because the armed forces are in constant contact with the enemy on the ground and they need proper protection. When our forces are dying because of roadside bombs when we have the capability to protect them better, we ought not to hold that procurement up by bureaucratic delay. I believe we were told last summer, at the trials of truth, that a decision would be made in November that there would be a downselect. In November, there was a downselect from three vehicles to three vehicles. That struck me as slightly strange, but we were also told at the same time that the downselect of the utility vehicle would be combined with the selector of the utility vehicle integrator. That has not happened. Therefore, the design of the vehicle is ploughing ahead somewhat strangely as no one knows who the integrator might be.