My Lords, at the specific request of my noble friend Lord Astor, I beg leave to ask the Government the following Question:

When they expect the first vehicles under the future rapid effect system to come into service with Her Majesty's Armed Forces.

My Lords, first, I am sure that the whole House will wish to join me in offering sincere condolences to the family and friends of Marine Alexander Lucas, who was killed on operations in Afghanistan on Monday.

On the Question, the future rapid effect system programme is currently in its assessment phase. The in-service date will not be fixed until the main investment decisions have been taken.

My Lords, we on these Benches should like to associate ourselves with the remarks of sympathy for the family and friends of Marine Lucas.

I am grateful to the Minister for that Answer. However, if the in-service date for the FRES Scout is likely, as we have heard, to be 2015, what interim solution does she intend to employ considering the now desperate state of the Scimitar CVRT, which has been in service since 1971, for 37 years? Is there anything available off the shelf? If there is, when might it come into service?

My Lords, I think that the noble Lord will be aware that just recently, on 29 October, we announced a substantial package of vehicles that will be suitable for operations. The FRES vehicles are not operation-specific; they are part of the long-term core programme. On 29 October, we announced that we are spending more than £700 million, which will cover a whole range of vehicles, some of which are upgraded. Many of the vehicles that we need cannot be bought off the shelf and require a great deal of development. Even when the basic vehicle is available, we often have to spend an awful lot of money to get them up to theatre-entry standard, given all the extra protection that we now know is necessary.

My Lords, I should like to enjoin these Benches in the earlier tribute.

Does not the FRES programme present a real opportunity for a joint procurement approach with the French, given the size, scale and length of time of the programme?

My Lords, we are always looking to collaborate where appropriate with other nations, as we have done on many programmes. The difficulty is that we need to have the same requirement, same timescale and similar funds available. That is not always the case, but we are always on the look-out for ways in which we can maximise the potential of our investment by working with appropriate other countries.