New Delhi, June 7 -- Britain has gone years without a credible military plan, and the cost of that absence is no longer theoretical.

The committee's report, published on June 7, targets the Defence Investment Plan - a document the government has repeatedly promised and repeatedly delayed. Originally expected in the autumn of 2025, the DIP was then pledged ahead of a NATO summit next month. As of the time of writing, it remains unpublished. The report does not merely criticise the timing. It maps out, with specificity, what the delay has already cost.

Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, the Conservative MP chairing the committee, was not in the mood for diplomacy. He dismissed the argument that the government was simply taking time to get the de...