Drayson back at MoD, retains biznovation portfolio

And you can follow him on twitter...

here: http://twitter.com/lorddrayson

Although I think I will stop following him now, I was not aware of his true (military) colours :(

The Party of Bankrupt Ideas

Oh dear ..... another old tired has been a dodgy failure returned to the fold. Although I will gladly eat those shorts if he has anything New and Vital to Offer.

Methinks though his past history speaks volumes, and thus signifies another folly in the making.

The MOD needs a Future Technologist not a Stock Item Procurer/Pimp.

He does it again!

amanfromMars has succinctly accurately summed up the story!!

Great Scott! The sky is falling in!

Understatement of the Year ?

"Drayson's previous business career was also the subject of some debate."

I appreciate the author must be careful in these circumstances - but the powderject makes for interesting (if disturbing) reading.

Title

"...though in fact the Future Lynx has American engines and also requires significant support from Italy."

True, but the engines are manufactured by a company 50% owned by Rolls-Royce so they could probably stick a few together in Bristol or Derby or somewhere if it made sense to do so.

UK arms industry

"...What other reason is there for continuing to trumpet such biased c**p and attempt to attack anyone who's actually for the UK arms industry"

Because he's reasonably well informed, and knows that most of the equipment is foisted on the forces despite being more expensive than a lot of solutions that can be bought off the shelf so that we can actually use it when we need it. If that wasn't enough there is also a depressing tendency for the home grown equipment to not to the job adequately as well.

We failed miserably in Iraq, mostly because of a lack of helicoptors which forced troops to use unprotected ground vehicles, which in turn resulted in us being unable to do anything useful. Eventually the yanks had to bail us out by retaking southern Iraq.

Despite this, we still don't have enough helicopters or protected vehicles. Because of this we have just been humiliated in Afghanistan as well. Depressingly, the americans have had to take over the control of helmand province from us because we couldn't do the job. Why? Well, it looks like its the same lack of equipment again.

Having just lost two wars over a stretch of time longer than the second world war we still don't have basic kit the army needs like transport helicopters and sufficient numbers of protected vehicles. If it can't be provided within the time we need it, we should buy from someone that *CAN* deliver it while it can do us some good.

Because, well you know peoples lives depend on getting this equipment. Not only those that die, but those that live crippled having lost limbs. Why? Because seemingly British arms companies would prefer that our troops don't have the equipment at all if they aren't providing it.

I'm all for us using our own equipment, but only up to the point where we can actually supply equipment fit for task when our troops need it at a reasonable price. If we can't, then we should buy it off the shelf from someone that can can.