Letter from Baroness Taylor to The Guardian

Baroness Taylor, Minister for Defence Equipment and Support has written a letter to the Guardian, which has been published in today's edition, in response to a column in the July 3rd issue of the paper which claimed the MOD is failing to properly equip the Army.>> This is Baroness Taylor's letter in full:>> Richard Norton-Taylor's column of 3 July 'Selling our soldiers short' claims that the Ministry of Defence is "failing to properly equip the army". While I welcome an open debate about spending, this should be based on facts. It is wrong to suggest that "while the Navy is purring over the prospect of sailing large new carriers, a new fleet of destroyers, and nuclear armed Trident submarines, and the RAF gets 144 long-delayed and increasingly costly Eurofighter/Typhoon jets, with the prospect of 88 more, the army is desperate". Investment in future capability is not at the expense of today's armed forces on operations.>> In the last three years we have delivered equipment valued at more than 10billion to the Armed Forces, with over 3.6billion worth of Urgent Operational Requirements having been approved since the start of current operations. Urgent Operational Requirements are delivered to the front line in order to meet the needs of operational commanders who face rapidly changing threats. These include improvements to personal kit - better body armour, more protective helmets, an improved sniper rifle, the Advanced Lightweight Grenade Launcher the 'grenade machine gun' and much enhanced night vision capabilities.>> Through new buys and modification programmes we are delivering over 600 vehicles with improved levels of protection to support the training for, and conduct of, operations, including Mastiff, Bulldog and Viking.