Be reasonable, after all, he would say that, wouldn't he? An MoD Spokesman is exactly that:- from his lips will come the Coporate Image that the faceless buraeucrats wish to present. Expecting anything else is being naive.
As for
"amongst the best equipped in the world"
again, undoubtedly true. But the best equipped for what? Knocking back Ivan through the Coppenbrugge Gap, taking out swarms of Armoured vehicles across desert plains, supporting a Balkan Peace Keeping intiative? Oh that's right, those were
yesterday's battles, and today we have something different.
Never mind; with a 10 year Major Procurement cycle designed solely to keep the Bristol Procurement Professionals fully employed, it's hardly worth bothering to equip the Armed Forces to counter the current threat is it? Far easier to drop a couple of Paddy and Mick's late night Shankhill taxis in Theatre, shore that up with a few bespoke and very unarmoured light vehicles, and then just deny it all in the Press.
Hard to imagine where such self-serving, disingenuous and disloyal behiour comes from isn't it, if only they took their lead from the senior members of what laughingly passes for Government these days...