'Defence chiefs must harness F1 expertise'

F1 engineering capability, most of the teams are based here and they have been for decades.

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“And what we are very good at in the UK is agility, pace and innovation.

“What we're not so good at is converting that into a product form that you make and sell in some form of volume to get the payback on the investment.

“But I really do genuinely think that we've got a lot of capability in this country that is a unique selling point and we do need to harness it to turn it into something meaningful economically.”

A report by the National Audit Office in 2020 found that on average “significant capabilities” are delayed by 26 months, leaving soldiers with substandard equipment at a time when the UK is being readied for war.

Sources within Army headquarters who work in procurement have told the Sunday Express that although improvements have been made since Russia’s 2022 full invasion of Ukraine, that figure is still likely to be more than 18 months.

The MoD has been embarrassed by disastrous programmes such as Ajax — an armoured vehicle due to come into service in 2017 at a cost of £6billion but which remains undelivered after incidents causing injuries to soldiers.