EXERCISE BRAVE DEFENDER (Hansard, 29 July 1986)

§ The Minister of State for Defence Procurement (Lord Trefgarne)

I informed your Lordships last October that I was placing in the Library an unclassified initial assessment of Exercise Brave Defender. This gave our initial judgment that the exercise had been an overall success and in particular demonstrated that the revised military home defence concept for guarding vital installations worked in practice.

The exercise was not designed to test our total military home defence capability nor could it realistically simulate wartime conditions in the nation as a whole. Nevertheless, further detailed analysis has confirmed our first impressions. We were particularly pleased with the co-operation between all three services, the integration of US forces and the participation of the reserves on such a large scale. The participation of civilian police forces nationwide was particularly useful since it underlined the fact that the primary responsibility for the internal security of the United Kingdom rests with the police. Following the exercise, studies are under way into improvements to mobilisation procedures; refinements in the deployment of static and mobile guard forces in the defence of vital installations; and the training and equipment available for Home Defence Forces.

We intend to build on the foundation of Brave Defender by conducting further military home defence exercises on both a local and national scale, although no date has yet been fixed for any future national exercise.