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Defence Procurement

May I, too, put on record my admiration for the bravery, sacrifice and professionalism of our armed forces, who do an absolutely amazing job? Of course, I send my condolences to the families of those who have lost their lives. This has been an interesting debate. Our armed forces are well served by the Members who are present; they take a great interest in, and think deeply about, the issues. I shall try to cover as many points as I can in the short time available to me. My right hon. Friend the Member for Walsall, South (Mr. George) brought his great experience to the debate, and made a balanced contribution. He said that the Government had behaved extremely responsibly; that was an important point. He noted that defence procurement is difficult, complicated and problematic, and strongly argued the case for improvements to procurement. A great deal has been done on the issue so far. He demonstrated a great grasp of the trials and tribulations of procurement, and talked about balancing the budget. In an important contribution, my hon. Friend the Member for Vale of Glamorgan (John Smith) made a significant point about training. He has been a great champion of the defence training review programme and St. Athan, and he rightly raised the issue today. He wanted an update on progress, and I can tell him that discussions with the Metrix consortium are still ongoing on a range of issues. We will make an announcement as soon as we are in a position to do so. As he knows, package 2 has reverted to a conventional procurement process, managed in-house. Approval of an initial gate is expected soon. He also mentioned resettlement, and made the important point that the skills and experiences of our armed forces personnel allow them to get into the jobs market pretty quickly, but training is an important consideration, too. My hon. Friend the Member for Bolton, North-East (Mr. Crausby) made a passionate speech about buying British and ensuring more British contracts—ideas that he has long championed. He mentioned the importance of the aerospace industry to the north-west. I count myself a Lancashire lad, so I agree that it is an important part of the world. He pointed out how proud we are of the British defence industry and its importance to maintaining links and partnerships, not just across the country but around the world. He made an important point about maintaining our skills base. He also asked about the Typhoon; we are continuing discussions with our partner nations and with the industry on tranche 3. Those discussions will continue throughout the year, and decisions will be taken as soon as possible. My hon. Friend the Member for Plymouth, Sutton (Linda Gilroy) has a great deal of experience in defence, and particularly naval, matters. She showed her knowledge and commitment to defence through the range of issues that she talked about. She mentioned the Navy's importance to Plymouth. She has been a great champion for Plymouth during her time as a Member of Parliament, and she regularly lobbies Ministers on a range of issues. She referred to future carriers, the Astute programme, the joint shipbuilding venture, and the size of the royal naval fleet. The joint venture is not yet formed, but is due to form on 1 July. It is still the Ministry of Defence's intention to order seven Astute boats. It was asked why no decisions had been taken on the Future Service Combatant. It is in the early stage of concept design, and detailed criteria have not yet been defined. The number of ships required will be determined when the programme is more mature. My hon. Friend the Member for North Durham (Mr. Jones) made a very important speech, showing his ability and his detailed grasp of defence issues. He made a number of points, but he referred in particular to the defence industrial strategy. Industry is, and continues to be, in close dialogue with the Ministry of Defence on that issue. Industry is helping us to develop the DIS update, and it was represented at a very senior level only a few weeks ago. Several other Members made important points. My time is limited, but I shall briefly go through them. The hon. Member for Moray (Angus Robertson) made a very important point about Nimrod. In the time that I have I am unable to deal with his questions, but I assure him that we will write to him as soon as possible. The right hon. Member for North-East Hampshire (Mr. Arbuthnot) has again shown his obvious grasp of detail because of his chairmanship of the Select Committee on Defence and his hard work on that. He raised a number of issues, as he has before. The right hon. Member for Fylde (Mr. Jack) is very lively on the issues that he raises, and he raises them continually. I was quite interested by the point that the hon. Member for Aldershot (Mr. Howarth) made: basically, he said that when things went wrong with procurement under the Conservative Government, it was the experts' fault, but when they went wrong under this Government, it was Ministers' fault. That was a very interesting contrast. The hon. Member for The Wrekin (Mark Pritchard) made an important contribution on modernisation and future technology. Shropshire is a great county. My grandfather served in the King's Shropshire Light Infantry. The hon. Member for North Devon (Nick Harvey) also made an important point about armoured vehicles, which I shall come on to, and the hon. Members for North Essex (Mr. Jenkin) and for Hemel Hempstead (Mike Penning) made impassioned speeches on issues that they are very keen to take further and explore. It is important to deal with several issues that several Members raised, rather than refer to each individual Member, but I shall say a few words first. Making sure that our servicemen and women have the equipment that they need when they need it is central to our defence effort. That theme emerged throughout the speeches today, and it is of course essential to our operational success. The Chief of the Defence Staff has said that the British forces across the board are better equipped than at any time during his 40 years of service. The servicemen and women—including some quartermasters—whom I meet on my operational visits to Iraq and Afghanistan, and in the UK, tell me that they have the best equipment that they have seen. However, we can always improve that, and there is no complacency. In the past three years, equipment to the value of £10 billion has been delivered to our armed forces. In addition to that expenditure, we have the urgent operational requirements process, which has been discussed in detail. It allows us to respond directly to feedback and requests from commanders on the front line—a key point to make—and it boosts capability where and when it is needed. We have approved about £3.5 billion since operations began. The investment has transformed personal equipment, from specially designed boots to the £29 million spent on new enhanced body armour, and it has doubled the firepower of an eight-man infantry section. The investment, as we have heard, continues to enhance and upgrade our protected patrol vehicle fleet—£500 million since operation began. We have done a tremendous amount in the past two years to ensure that commanders have had a variety of vehicles at their disposal. However, as my right hon. Friend the Minister for the Armed Forces made clear in his speech, in reality no single vehicle is suitable for every task. We must listen to the commanders' views on that. There was some confusion about vehicles, and in the few minutes that I have left I hope to clear that up. Members referred to a number of different vehicles that are available to operational commanders. Mastiff is a heavily armoured 6x6-wheel drive patrol vehicle, based on the US Cougar that American marines use. The MWMIK, known as Jackal, is a high-mobility weapons platform based on the Supacat vehicle. WMIK, which is part of the Land Rover family, is an open-topped vehicle that provides a better situational awareness and allows greater interaction with the local population. There are three types of Land Rover: the basic, the Snatch and the WMIK. On the question whether the WMIK will replace the Snatch, just as with the question of the Mastiff and the Bulldog, it is our intention that the arrival of the Jackal, which is the MWMIK, and the WMIK and the Ridgback, will substantially reduce the use of Snatch vehicles, other than in a number of limited roles and operational tasks that commanders want them for. However, it is important to make the point that we have available a range of vehicles which has been much increased in the past year or two. We are continually investing in programmes to increase the protection of our vehicles against all threats, including explosive devices. We are committed to the FRES programme and to deploying that capability as soon as we can. We are working hard to increase the level of helicopter support that we provide to commanders on operations. Since March last year, we have increased the number of helicopter, including Chinook, flying hours that we provide in Afghanistan by over 33 per cent. Driving through efficiency in our logistical support has been key to this process. The cost of high-end equipment is increasing, and we must have an equipment programme that is focused and sustainable. It being Six o'clock, the motion lapsed, without Question put.