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He has been in post for just one month, but Mr Luff - a keen supporter of the Armed Forces Parliamentary Scheme where MPs 鈥榡oin鈥� the Forces for weeks at a time to see military life - has already built up a stock of experience:

Urgent Operational Requirements [UORs] achieved by DE&S, delivering kit to our people to make life safer, and their lives better is a fantastic success story,鈥� he said.

And we have to talk about it more. It just shows what can be done. It requires a constant blitz to get this message across.

As Minister for Defence Equipment, Support and Technology - the amended title shows the increasing importance of technology insertion into defence equipment - for only a few weeks Mr Luff has received a crash course in the work of DE&S which has given him the knowledge he will need to contribute to the forthcoming Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR):

The range and scale of the work done by DE&S is breathtaking,鈥� he said.

Abbey Wood is a hugely impressive operation and I pay tribute to all those who brought two organisations into one. It has worked in a short timescale with very sharp reductions in staff. But the 鈥榗an do鈥� attitude you see in the Armed Services you see at DE&S too.

Despite briefs on major projects Mr Luff is keen on second opinions:

I am told the equipment DE&S produces is very good. On my visits to see equipment I have been impressed. It does look good.

But I will be going to theatre in the not-too-distant future and one of my key questions will be, is this actually true?

I鈥檓 inclined to think it is but I need to hear it from the horse鈥檚 mouth.

Many of us have friends and relations in theatre who say things are coming along quite fast in the quality of kit the troops are getting. But public perceptions lag a long way behind reality.

It鈥檚 a problem politicians face all the time. People judge things on what they heard a year or two ago, Those memories linger on and it is very true of kit.

It has got better, a lot of lessons have been learned, but that doesn鈥檛 mean we can鈥檛 make further improvements.

The number one priority is to make sure the Afghanistan effort is supported,鈥� he added.

You can鈥檛 fault the DE&S effort towards UORs - at what cost to the rest of the organisation, well, discuss - but that effort has been fantastic.

The second priority has to be getting things back in balance again. The organisation is hopelessly overcommitted and cannot afford what it is committed to. But we can鈥檛 rush decisions.

In a sense this is an easy time for me as we wait for SDSR and we鈥檒l be much busier in the autumn when we know exactly what it is we want to achieve.

Mr Luff, with a long record of success in business, has spoken to staff about a new relationship with industry:

We will always be at a disadvantage against the commercial sector, their commercial skills, their legal skills, their lobbying campaigns. So we must make sure we upskill people.

I know a lot of that is already happening. Project management work for example which the Chief of Defence Materiel is always telling me about, is clearly improving rapidly and we are in some cases leading the rest of the country, but that kind of skill has to be developed so we can take on industry.

Industry has to recognise that they may want a long-term base but they must treat us fairly too.They can鈥檛 take us for granted. Rebalancing means empowering us to take on industry.

Other priorities include treating our small and medium sized enterprises properly and trying to increase the exportability of our equipment. I鈥檓 really keen on making sure our exports in the defence world rise. We are very good already; we can do much better.

There will be an updated version of the Defence Industrial Strategy (DIS) informed by SDSR. Again Mr Luff is forthright:

What was crucially wrong with the old DIS was that it didn鈥檛 have a price tag to it. It was a wish list, and the next DIS can鈥檛 be a wish list,鈥� he said.

We haven鈥檛 made formal decisions on how we go forward on that, but we want industry heavily involved. I鈥檓 clear that the defence industry is a big part of the British economy and I鈥檓 concerned to make sure that any decisions we take affecting procurement actually enforce the success of industry to the nation.

Parts of the Gray Report last year caused controversy:

Some of the phraseology of the Gray Report might have upset people but there was a lot of common sense in it. He proposed GOCOs [government-owned, commercially operated], which I disagree with very strongly.

But there are too many types of equipment, too many tasks they have to perform, too many specifications. Bad decision-making here in Whitehall is part of the problem.

Abbey Wood gets dumped on very often for faults which are created elsewhere in the system. As ministers we have to make sure that we stop that, that we set achievable targets for DE&S. A lot of Gray is already there and not controversial.

I don鈥檛 see how you can remove the military from the process. We appoint a new Chief of Defence Materiel later this year and I don鈥檛 want to curtail that person鈥檚 freedom of manoeuvre specifically by what I think should happen at Abbey Wood.

They should have the freedom of manoeuvre to make any changes they want to but I do see it as difficult to remove the military. We need the military to make sure we get the capabilities right.

Mr Luff has echoed Defence Secretary Liam Fox鈥檚 warning about future economies:

We haven鈥檛 got the money we need to do the things we want to do on current plans,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e face a budgetary problem as a department and a budgetary crisis as a country.

We have to make savings and DE&S can鈥檛 be exempt from that process. Efficiencies have to be driven into the whole process. The 25 per cent figure you have heard applies to the main running costs of the department.

The department can rise to the challenge; it has to, as we can鈥檛 go on as we are.

Mr Luff鈥檚 appointment surprised many, not the least his wife, who answered the early morning phone call from the Prime Minister:

I had said I would like to be a minister but only in a job I would enjoy doing,鈥� said Mr Luff. 鈥淚 wanted to do a job I would believe in. This job I hadn鈥檛 considered available. It is, and I鈥檓 thrilled.

Peter Luff MP

Member of Parliament for Mid-Worcestershire, married into a naval family. His father-in-law is a retired naval officer who taught at Dartmouth while his brother-in-law is a serving naval officer.

His own father, a sergeant in the Berkshire Yeomanry, served during World War One and, along with two brothers, survived the horrors of Gallipoli, before joining the Imperial Camel Corps and serving with TE Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) in Damascus.

Before becoming Minister for Defence Equipment, Support and Technology in the new Coalition government, Mr Luff, an MP for Worcester since 1992, headed the private office of Sir Edward Heath in the 1980s and became a successful businessman in the corporate communications industry. He has also been company secretary of his family鈥檚 retail stationery firm.

He lives in Worcestershire with his wife Julia. They have two grown-up children.

This article is taken from the July 2010 edition of desider - the magazine for Defence Equipment and Support.