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Defence Procurement

Absolutely; valuable contributions have been made. My concern is not so much about international ownership as about British production. From a defence point of view, as long as manufacturers are prepared to produce products using British workers, and to keep that under British control, I am happy. We must ensure, however, that such openness is not a door that opens only one way. Too often that is the case, certainly as far as the Americans and many of our European partners are concerned. We are, as my hon. Friend described, privileged to be involved with some first-class international aerospace co-operation programmes: the joint strike fighter, the Eurofighter Typhoon and the A400M, for example. They are first-class products and we must take full advantage of them. I am disappointed that we have suffered so much slippage in the A400M transport programme, and I am concerned at the way in which we work our ageing Hercules Lockheed C-130 fleet in such difficult circumstances in Iraq and Afghanistan. We must ensure that we provide first-class equipment for the transport of our armed forces. When the Main Gate approval decision was made in May 2000, the in-service date for the A400M was predicted to be December 2009. That was revised in May 2003 to an in-service date of March 2011, and Airbus Military recently announced that the initial aircraft delivery date will slip a further six to 12 months, taking us to December 2011. At Defence questions on Monday, I was disappointed with the vague answer that I received about the numbers of A400M aircraft that we intend to procure, and when we can expect them to come into service. The delivery dates for the 25 planes that we have ordered span 2010 to 2015, and I believe that this House is entitled to be informed in much more detail of the reliability and security of our transport fleet. Again, the joint strike fighter is an exciting prospect, but it is disappointing that it will not be ready in time to fly off our new aircraft carriers—provided, of course, that the carriers' launch dates do not slip from 2014 and 2016. The Eurofighter Typhoon has been another tremendous success, for Lancashire in particular, even if it was a long time coming. However, we are entitled to an early decision about whether the Government intend to purchase tranche 3. One problem for industry is that once existing orders for both air and maritime platforms are completed, there may be no new requirements for new platforms for some considerable time, so we need to make the very best of what is available to us now. Our industrial base needs certainty, too, and although the defence industrial strategy was a considerable achievement, we seriously need an update. In the Minister's opening remarks, he referred to the Government's review of the budget over the next three years, 10 years, or whatever, covering 2008-09 to 2010-11 and thinking even further ahead. I accept completely that they may need to make some difficult decisions, but whatever is agreed we should adopt a realistic and affordable programme. If we need to commit to an entire equipment programme, we should get on with it, instead of allowing programmes to slip further and further in the hope that no one will notice. Most importantly, if the Government are prepared to make such a decision, none of us should play party politics with the issue. It is far too important to play games with. I urge the Government Front-Bench team and the Ministry of Defence firmly to decide our future requirements, and to do so very soon.