Originally Posted by
Asturias56
even worse - and this from a supporter!
"But there is a sense that so many cuts have been made, and so many compromises made and focus placed on reducing out of sight issues like logistical enablers, that what has emerged is a navy with a capable carrier, but which will, baring a miracle, run out of capable support for the carrier force within the next 5-10 years. To fix this requires decisions almost immediately on more aircraft, new helicopters, ordering of support ships, investment in new surface ships and so on. The most worrying aspect of the NAO report is that they do not seem to have been factored into planning, and there is no sense that the money is there for them."
Exactly.
There is a fundamental acquistion principle here. If the Service (not the procurers) has not made materiel and financial provison for the wherewithal to put the kit to its intended use, and succeeded in having the funding approved, then the 'requirement' MUST fail Requirement Scrutiny. MoD's latest explanation seems to be this is too difficult. Agreed, it's not easy, but to omit entire support infrastructure components?
I can pinpoint the moment (in my experience) when this principle was ditched. September 1999. It was a much lesser requirement, only a few tens of millions. The new IPT was contracting shed loads of avionics for a mid-life upgrade, but there wasn't a single penny sought to enable the kit to be actually fitted to aircraft or supported. The Chief of Defence Procurement ruled that this was unnecessary, and one should just sign to say the money was there; which isn't a millions miles from what seems to have happened on the Carriers. A couple of years later, the Infantry did the same on its flagship £4Bn programme, despite a clear warning 'This cannot pass RS'. And they wonder why it wasn't a roaring success?
Implementation was always variable, and I dare say the rules have changed nowadays, but whatever they are this is still a howler. The Equipment Approvals Committee (or whatever they're called now) need to explain.