On the day of a defence debate, it was perhaps pertinent that the head of the Army said Britain should “train and equip” a “citizen army” to ready the country for a potential land war, and he's not the only one saying prepare for war. But, more of that later. PMQs was sparky, not least because one of our MPs had called for the PM to go. That was ammunition for the leader of the Opposition, who started with this advantage, but then lost it as the PM countered well. A quick sandwich and then to CR8 for another session of our Defence Committee. With our new chairman, Sir Jeremy Quin, now firmly in place, we took evidence from industry and trade unions about the Global Combat Air Programme, advanced jet trainer replacement, and broader issues of defence industrial strategy. The six witnesses came in three panels. Panel one consisted of Herman Claesen, Managing Director, Future Combat Air System, and Simon Barnes, Group Managing Director Air, BAE Systems. On panel two was Tristan Crawford, CEO, AERALIS, and Nick Laird CBE, Managing Director, European Space & Defence, Spirit AeroSystems. Panel three was Ian Waddell, General Secretary,The Confederation of Shipbuilding & Engineering Unions, and Rhys McCarthy, National Officer for Aerospace and Shipbuilding, Unite the Union. It was an interesting session and can be seen on Parliament TV. I left before the end as I had wanted to speak in the debate on the situation in the Red Sea. It had been a general debate on defence, but was changed. I was the last to be called on our side and both my speech and the Defence Secretary's opening comments are on the website. The debate ended at 1900. In other news, Ukraine's military intelligence accused Russia of deliberately jeopardising the lives of prisoners of war, after Moscow said Kyiv had downed a plane with 65 PoWs on board.