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Armed Forces: Future Defence Policy

My Lords, after eight years we are still talking about the same thing. Why can it not be done more quickly? As the noble Lord, Lord King, said, there is a way forward. It will cost money. The Minister says that the United States army uses helicopters in a different way. We would like to be much more flexible in our use of helicopters. We would like to be able to surprise the enemy, get behind them and disrupt them, rather than using helicopters only for administration as we do. This is what commanders are crying out to do. I do not accept all the talk of percentage increases that is spouted, because we started at such a low level. A helicopter is a vital machine on a modern battlefield and we must recognise that.