Defence Industry to Challenge Tory ‘Off-The-Shelf’ Plans

The Defence Industries Council will today (Monday) invite Conservative party conference delegates to debate the future of defending the UK at a fringe event entitled Should we equip our armed forces 'off the shelf'?>> The Conservative Shadow Secretary of State for Defence, Liam Fox, has recently indicated that he would consider procuring more defence equipment off the shelf rather than working primarily with industry in the UK to tailor kit to meet the specific needs of our armed forces.>> This high-value manufacturing industry, which employs over 300,000 people in the UK, contends that this would be a mistake.>> Off the shelf procurement means more imports but this equipment is often difficult to tailor and upgrade, tends to cost more through the life of the product than domestically-produced kit and brings none of the significant benefits to the UK economy that todays defence industrial base provides. More importing would erode the UK defence manufacturing base and the ability of the industry in the UK to respond quickly to the needs of our armed forces in Afghanistan and elsewhere would be lost. This would leave the UK dependant on other nations for its protection, thereby significantly constraining the UKs ability to operate an independent foreign and security policy.>> The fringe event will be held at 1230 in Hall 7 of the ICC in Birmingham.