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Defence Policy

I defer to my hon. Friend's knowledge, because he knows a great deal about these matters, but in any case I agree with him. Lord Drayson is a good exemplification of the way in which a bridge was built between industry and the Ministry of Defence to create a good rapport over the use of technologies. Someone who knows a great deal more about defence than I do has said that, whatever the scenario, in the first instance we should send the enemy the message that we have what he described as a terrifying response. In other words, we say to the enemy, "If you have a go, you too will get more than a bloody nose in return." That means that in some circumstances we do have to have the big kit with the big hit, but the terrifying response can manifest itself in many ways. We need to be flexible as we approach the next strategy defence review. It will not surprise you to learn, Mr. Speaker, that I want to spend the remaining moments of my time considering the aerospace industry. Over the summer there were some dispiriting reports. Now that the Government have at long last decided on tranche 3 of the Eurofighter, people are saying that when Eurofighter comes to an end, BAE Systems Warton in my constituency—the home of military aircraft production and expertise in the United Kingdom—will close. Many people have been deeply worried about that. I say to my own Front-Bench colleagues that some of their observations and attitudes towards a number of defence projects have also caused worries; the idea of a review of the Eurofighter Typhoon project has created an air of uncertainty, for example. It would be helpful if the Government spelled out the penalties that will result if people go monkeying around with what has been agreed. The RAF will not get the 232 aircraft that were originally committed to. A number of those aircraft have been sold to a very good customer: Saudi Arabia. If we carry on having this kind of dialogue, in which people across the political spectrum undermine the Eurofighter, we will miss out on a tremendous opportunity. It has been calculated that there is a market of some £90 billion-worth of ageing fighter fast jet capacity that will need to be replaced. The alternative to the Eurofighter is the much more expensive United States F-35 joint strike fighter. I would far rather the Eurofighter Typhoon consortium had the benefit of those orders, but unless we get behind the aircraft and show commitment towards it, we will not realise that opportunity. This is important not from the point of view of jobs alone, as the Eurofighter Typhoon sustains the technology base that is our aerospace industry. I was delighted when the Secretary of State talked about the deployment in the Afghanistan theatre of HERTI, an unmanned air reconnaissance vehicle. I am delighted that a piece of technology that was manufactured in short order using relatively simple aerospace technology but very advanced electronics is now playing a part in Afghanistan and showing the way forward.