What is more, where the Soviets are successful in doing so, they are employing such systems for military purposes hardly surprising given that the precision capability inherent in these sophisticated machines is not required by most commercial or civil applications.

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Ministers say they are also looking at ways that GCHQ's "world class expertise" in the area might be used to help businesses - for example looking at whether encryption techniques and other expertise that is not considered top secret might have commercial applications.

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So cuts to next-generation programs not only limit the benefit for the military, they also threaten to slow the advance of commercial applications that benefit the public.

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