A new report from the Defence Select Committee highlights the dire state of military procurement and it’s effect on the Armed Forces.
Mounting domestic pressures and tight budgets mean defence is likely doomed to always look like an easy cut when election time draws near.
The conventional war on the Central European landmass unfolding before us is a massive international event – comparable in security terms to a 9/11.
In particular, the escort fleet needs to double in size by acquiring more low-end capability to carry out presence operations and other low-end tasks.
The row over the Northern Ireland Protocol must not be allowed to poison co-operation with our continental partners on defence against Russia.
Wallace has done well to win an exceptional defence settlement, but it may not be enough to fund all the Integrated Review’s ambitions.
Here is a politician educated at Sandhurst and on active service with the Scots Guards in Northern Ireland, not by reading PPE at Oxford.
For the Party to take it off him is one thing; for the Government to recast the committee, or try to, would be quite another.
In the private sector, constantly over-spending your allocated budget would not be dealt with by a bailout but by being shown the door.
The Exiting the European Union Committee has been renamed. The Conservative MPs elected to it are staunch Brexiteers.
These bodies will play an important role in holding this majority Government to account. What will Downing Street make of the results?
Talk of more competition can be naïve if the choice simply amounts to either buying from a national monopoly or making an off-the-shelf purchase from the USA.
Our future Conservative Party leadership needs to address quickly and effectively the problems which have led to the latter’s rise.
It’s increasingly clear that he is the candidate who can win back the voters we need to win the next general election.
If we are to keep our nation safe, our adversaries deterred, and our allies reassured, we now urgently require full-scale reform of the way we be buy and support our fighting equipment.