Speeches by Twigg.

“And specified exactly what we want.”

“I am probably putting you in an impossible position here, but in cost terms, what are we talking? Is it in the billions or the hundreds of millions?”

“Rowan, to pick up something from your earlier conversation with Calvin Bailey, a lot of the focus at the moment in terms of why Europe needs to step up—and we need to step up—is on what the President and the Administration have said and done, but you were saying that it is actually more than that, which has not been hi…”

“Yes.”

“That may answer the question.”

“That is very helpful. I will follow on from Lincoln Jopp’s questions on the capability gaps if the US pulled out or reduced its commitment here. You touched on this—we have talked about refuelling aircraft, logistics and intelligence. There are already major logistics and capability shortfalls in NATO—it is not just us…”

“Based on where we are today, would we struggle to replace those capabilities if the US stepped back?”

“We have touched on intelligence, and obviously we are pretty pre-eminent in Europe, but it took reliance on Starlink and American systems and so on. Are we anywhere near being able to stand on our own in Europe on that? I think I know the answer, but I would be interested in your view.”

“Sorry to interrupt, CDS, but are you saying there was no clarity from the Secretary of State for Defence before?”

“How would you stop the overspecification? What is the trigger that appears somewhere in your new quad organisation and says, “Hang on a minute. Someone is overspecifying here”? What is that?”

“That is the question. What is different?”

“I have a final question for Mr Williams before we finish. Both the Defence Committee and this Committee are concerned about the fact that there is a budget of approximately £300 billion for equipment over 10 years based on figures from two years ago. How do we scrutinise that?”

“Finally, the Procurement Minister told the Business and Trade Committee in March, “The target is to reduce the average time to contract at that top layer from six years to two years and at the middle layer from three years to one year. At the bottom layer, we want to be able to get to contract in three months.” When wi…”

“Thank you; that is useful. I am just trying to get to the process. What is the trigger that hits you, the quad, that you find within the system and says there is overspecification or people are still changing a project well down the line of its development? What is the trigger for you?”

“So none of the eight that are currently in red?”

“So what is the delivery date for Wedgetail?”

“And also not at cost either.”

“What is Wedgetail costing additionally?”

“Well, there were only two of those in the last report.”

“Sorry to interrupt, but there are some very big and important projects here. They are all important, but there are some very big ones.”