The PM looked up, stunned at Kydd’s onslaught. “Are you seriously telling me that it’s got this bad, CDS?”

“Yes, and . . .”

“Rubbish,” Everage intervened, a triumphant look on his face. “We’ve still got eighty-two thousand in the Army and you’re seriously telling us that we’re pushed to find a brigade of five thousand men. We’ve got lots of brigades . . .”

And now Kydd interrupted him in return. “Every last one of them underequipped and undermanned. To bring them up to full war-fighting establishment we’ll have to fill the gaps from across the rest of the Army. Not only that, many units, particularly logistic units—without which no army can fight—are now dependent on reserves. Great people reserves, salt of the earth, but not easily available in the time span we’re talking about, and there’s lots of gaps in key roles.

“Then there’s equipment. Much of our heavy war-fighting kit, the stuff we’ll need against the Russians, has been neglected as you’ve spent the money on the latest kit to fight the insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan—a very different type of war. To put heavy equipment into battle—tanks or mobile guns, for example—you need spare engines, generators and a host of other stuff which we don’t have in our stores any longer. You lot decided to stop spending money on this boring stuff. But if a tank hasn’t got a track pin to hold the track together, a part for the engine, or exactly the right nut to hold the gun in place, then all it’s good for is a museum. You certainly cannot take it to war.

“And, finally, logistics. That’s about getting the fuel, bullets, water and everything else that’s needed to where you need it. That requires a complex supply system from the factory to the front line. Above all, it has to be robust enough to stand the test of combat. And much of that thinking, capability and understanding had been lost.”

“Stop there, CDS.” It was Little who now interrupted. “I’m with the Secretary of State on this. Surely we can send at least an army division and the paras as well. The marines, well, of course, now . . .”

“Sir.” Kydd now moderated his tone. “The Paras are integrating with 82nd Airborne, as I said. Special Forces have, of course, been gearing up from the start. But a combined arms division? No . . .”

He gazed at the ceiling for a moment, thinking hard. “Let me try to give you an example of what you,” he nodded at Everage, “have done with your constant and ill-thought-through cost cutting . . . I take it you know what I mean by a Bailey Bridge?”

Both men nodded.