David Davies: Let’s champion Defence industry workers because the Welsh Government doesn’t

David TC Davies was Secretary of State for Wales from 2022 to 2024. He was the Member of Parliament for Monmouth from 2005 to 2024 and previously sat in the Welsh Assembly.

Communities across Wales and the United Kingdom are marking Armed Forces Day.

We rightly pay tribute to the men and women of His Majesty’s Armed Forces, who stand ready to defend our country, often at great personal sacrifice.

But there is another group of people who are crucial to the defence of our nation, who rarely receive the recognition they deserve. I refer to the thousands of workers who design and build the weapons and equipment that keep our service personnel and all of us safe.

As a Welsh politician, I am very conscious of their contribution because the defence sector is vital to the Welsh economy. Global companies such as BAE Systems, General Dynamics, Airbus, Raytheon and Babcock all have a significant presence in Wales. But there are also dozens of smaller firms further down the supply chain, employing a highly skilled workforce.

I recently visited Sierra Nevada Corporation Mission Systems in South Wales, one of a number of companies based in Wales and developing advanced defence technology. Not far away is IrvinGQ, which manufactures parachutes used by the British Armed Forces and allied nations around the world. Remarkably, much of the highly skilled work involved in manufacturing these life-saving products is still carried out by hand.

These are highly skilled jobs that support families and communities across Wales, yet too often the people who work in the defence sector are treated as though there is something morally questionable about what they do.

Last year, I discovered that the Welsh Government-owned Development Bank of Wales was explicitly stating on its website that it would not provide funding to defence companies. Following my intervention, that wording was removed, but I never received a satisfactory explanation as to why it had appeared there in the first place. The message seemed to be that building the equipment used by those defending our democracy is somehow less worthy than other forms of manufacturing.

That attitude still exists in some political circles. We now have a Plaid Cymru Government in Wales. One of their Ministers, Heledd Fychan, previously criticised Welsh Government attendance at a major international defence exhibition, describing it as a “contemptible event”. Another Plaid Senedd Member publicly called for the arms industry to be “moved out of Wales”.

Others are demanding that pension funds withdraw investment from the very companies that equip our Armed Forces.

Plaid Cymru politicians are entitled to hold those views. But they should also understand the consequences. Our Armed Forces cannot defend Britain, with slogans, and protest banners.

But if we expect our servicemen and women to defend our country, we must also be willing to support the industries that equip them. We cannot send them into war zones armed with pea shooters and bows and arrows.

They need advanced aircraft, precision-guided weapons, armoured vehicles and the countless other technologies that modern warfare demands.

Some politicians want to be seen celebrating Armed Forces Day while remaining hostile towards the people who make the equipment our Armed Forces rely upon every day. This could most kindly be described as inconsistent.

I am proud of Wales’s defence industry and the thousands of Welsh workers whose skills help keep Britain safe. I will continue visiting defence companies across Wales and championing the contribution they make to our economy and national security.

At a time when international instability is increasing, we should be cheering on our defence companies, not undermining them. And if the UK Government finally wakes up to the scale of the geopolitical challenges we face and increases defence spending, Wales must receive its fair share of that investment.

It is pointless to champion the men and women of His Majesty’s Armed Forces if we are not also willing to champion those who provide them with the equipment they need to fight and win.

A strong Britain requires strong armed forces and strong armed forces require a strong defence industry.

Wales has every reason to be proud of the role it plays in both.