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The Armed Forces may have to rely on foreign firms for supplies in future unless the Ministry of Defence gives British companies better information about its future needs, MPs have warned.
The cross-party Commons Defence Select Committee raised the alarm after industry chiefs voiced "huge concern" that the MoD was focusing only on short-term equipment requirements.
Worries have grown over the Government's failure to update the Defence Industrial Strategy, which helps suppliers plan by setting out longer-term needs.
The strategy has not been updated for more than three years after the MoD failed to do as planned in December 2007 and, then, spring 2008. It is now unclear whether an updated strategy will appear at all, the defence committee said.
Committee chairman James Arbuthnot said it was "astonishing" that Defence Minister Quentin Davies described himself as "open-minded" about when a new strategy should be published.
Mr Arbuthnot, a Conservative MP, added: "We condemn the failure to publish an updated version of the Defence Industrial Strategy and consider that its continuing absence increases the risk that the UK Defence Industrial Base will not be able to meet the future requirements of our Armed Forces."
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The committee heard from Defence Industries Council chairman Mike Turner that there were concerns about Britain's ability to "play a role in the world five, 10, 15 years out". "We have a world class defence industrial base and only focusing on the short term and not the long term is of huge concern to us," he told the committee. "I tell you now this industry is in decline and unless people pay attention to the budgeting of defence in this country and the defence industrial base we do not have a future."
In a report, the committee expressed concern about the MoD's declining performance in longer-term equipment procurement. "The UK must have the equipment it requires for the type of operations it may face in 10, 15 and 20 years' time," it said.
"It is also crucial that the UK has the industrial capabilities, identified in the Defence Industrial Strategy, to manufacture and support a significant proportion of such equipment onshore, thereby retaining operational sovereignty.
"Industry needs clarity about future equipment requirements to enable it to make the necessary investment and such clarity was to have been provided in the updated version of the strategy, which was originally expected to be published in December 2007. As is the case with many equipment programmes, the deadline for the updated strategy was missed. There is now some doubt as to whether the updated Defence Industrial Strategy will appear at all."
