5 Towards a Strategic Defence Review
50. On 7 July, the Secretary of State made a written
ministerial statement in which he set out the Government's proposals
for a new strategic defence review to take place early on in the
next Parliament.[92]
He announced the publication of a Green Paper in early in 2010
which would, amongst other things, consider lessons "learned
from recent operations and the changing character of conflict",
"technological changes in defence", and "the modern
day requirements on and aspirations of our armed forces personnel".
51. We welcome the Government's announcement of
a strategic review of defence, the need for which has long been
apparent. The case for better resourcing of helicopters has however,
already been made clear. The MoD should not use the announcement
of the strategic review to delay the important decision which
needs to be taken in relation to the acquisition of the Future
Medium Helicopter, albeit on a modified off-the-shelf basis. The
time has come to appreciate fully the role of helicopters in modern
operations. We expect the Government to stop equivocating over
the separate concepts of 'capability', 'capacity', and 'availability'.
The MoD should seize the opportunity to recognise the importance
of helicopters to current and contingent operations, and work
towards strengthening all aspects of capability: the number of
helicopters in the fleet, the support structure that underpins
their operations, manning, both in the air and on the ground,
and finally, the training for the full spectrum of capabilities
described by the review itself.
92 HC Deb, 7 Jul 2009, Col 39WS Back
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