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Defence Policy

In my recent discussions with a senior officer, the criticism I heard was not of the quality of equipment in the field; it was that there was insufficient equipment of that quality that people could be trained on back home—that was the big deficiency. He said that troops go from being Robocop to being yeomen of the guard when they return. Many hon. Members are concerned that although we have some state-of-the-art equipment, which we welcome, it is insufficient, particularly in terms of preparation, training and replacement.