Talk about defence and foreign affairs policy at the House of Commons
Was Minister of State for the Armed Forces from 1994-97 and is now Shadow Secretary of State for Defence from 2003.
The Chairman warned that Mr Soames would be dashing to some votes in the middle of his address. His address may therefore appear stunted at various intervals.
Defence
A very complicated matter today – he has eight very happy years in the army and it was an easy time in those days. Today people don’t know where they are going to fight and therefore planning ahead is difficult and very complicated.
The Armed Forces are remarkable and a great asset – more so than most people recognise. He is confident of getting funding to ensure the continuation of the ethos and training. New aircraft carriers are an example of wasteful defence funding. Terrorism is a threat to London; it is a lethal danger to the Western world. Terrorists 'love death more than they love life'. Intelligence services have done a great job on the three big questions in the armed forces:
• money
• morale
• manning
Iraq war
Operation Desert fox – bombing of Iraq in 1998.
In this war the capture of Basra was described as the way ahead for modern warfare. 10,000 men and women were deployed in the post-conflict situation in Basra. At the moment we are 4,300 under strength in our armed forces. No technological wizadry makes up for lack of numbers.
There were serious equipment failings in Iraq. The most serious were airplanes deployed to base but fast-moving armoured infantry if difficult to keep up with without tracking equipment to ensure they reach the front line. There were no chemical weapons filters fitted.
Northern Ireland
The peace process continues. When a normal pattern of life resumes the military requirement will come down.
Defence White Paper
The main must be to be inter-operable with Americans on defence. White Paper information here.
There must be ongoing transformation in military matters. Many lessons in the American General's quote: 'if you don’t like transformation you'll like irrelevance less'. The Eurofighter ordered by John Nott in 1981 has taken more than twenty years to prepare it for service. There should be reforms in the procurement area. NATO remains the cornerstone of Defence policy – it is a waste of space to try and duplicate it. Defence resources should be spent in the NATO ambit.
Vision for the future
• a capable and fully equipped front line
• funding for a capable armed forces
• moving into unarmed aerial combat
We must move into a new era of warfare. It will be hard to preserve the ethos and traditions that sustain our armed forces.