Is it not the case that, until the Secretary of State and his Ministers face up to the budgetary Crisis in the Ministry of Defence, those problems will not be solved or go away?

Although Conservative Members recognise the demands for the new technologies and the need wholeheartedly to embrace them, we remain deeply concerned about the consequences that flow from the financial Crisis in the Ministry of Defence at a time of severe overstretch.

If that fails to drive home the state of Crisis in the Ministry of Defence, let us open Bernard Gray's "Review of Acquisition", published last year, which says: "The UK's level of ambition around capability is significantly out-of-balance with resources available on any realistic short-, medium- or long-term basis".