Defence officials need to make tough decisions about spending instead of delaying projects on a piecemeal basis, MPs have said.

A report from the Commons defence committee on Thursday also expressed serious concern about the Ministry of Defence's programme of job cuts at a time when staff are too busy to undertake vital training.

Although the Defence Equipment and Support organisation was praised for managing its recent merger and the speed with which it was getting urgently needed equipment to frontline troops, MPs were less than satisfied with continued delays on a number of deals.

They include a two-year delay to the A400M transport aircraft project and delays to the joint strike fighter project.

That is now not expected to be ready in time for the launch of the first of two new aircraft carriers for the Navy, leaving the ship to carry out-of-date aircraft.

Committee chairman James Arbuthnot was particularly critical of news that the Nimrod MRA4 maritime patrol aircrafts were almost £800m over budget and eight years behind schedule.

"The MoD must carefully examine whether it should cut its losses and withdraw from this sorry saga," he said.

This year's comprehensive spending review resulted in an MoD planning round that is more "challenging" than previous years, the report said.

But the committee has asked the department to explain why times are so tough when there have been several years of real term budget increases.

And the report noted that the ministry has long had an unaffordable equipment programme and had avoided cancelling orders by delaying projects and parts of projects.

Confidence

Arbuthnot said the government needed to "confront the problem rather than giving the usual response of salami-slicing and moving programmes to the right", even if that meant cutting some equipment deals entirely.

"A realistic equipment programme will give confidence to our armed forces that the programmes that remain will be delivered in the numbers and to the timescale required, and will also allow industry to make informed investment decisions," he said.

The report also expressed serious concern about the failure to give staff "crucial" training in areas such as engineering, project management, logistics, finance and commerce.

MPs warned that it was not acceptable to wait until the current tempo of activity reduced and said it was "inexplicable for the MoD both to be reducing the numbers of staff", by 27 per cent by 2012, "and to be telling those that remain that there is no time to train them".

The report warned: "Every week that passes without staff adequately skilled and equipped to do their vital jobs has the potential of damaging the work that they do and the projects they are running."

Defence equipment and support minister Baroness Taylor welcomed the committee's praise and said the department's spending plans were under regular review.

But she also emphasised the "size and complexity of the MoD's equipment programmes", adding that the "challenges in delivery and technology must not be underestimated".