Originally Posted by
Wig Wag
The Ascent contract will have many MoD dependencies, which Ascent will understand and perhaps knew many were undeliverable due to conflicting MoD policies.
For example, it is common for MoD to have to provide Government Furnished Services/Equipment/Facilities (GFX). Most would think this reasonable, to avoid having to buy them all over again. And some are strategic UK assets, with no alternative permitted. But a few years before the T.2 was bought, the Chief of Defence Procurement banned all GFX in contracts. While at the same time pushing ‘incremental acquisition’ (another name for existing policy), which by definition requires GFX.
There is a direct correlation between successful projects of the time, and staff completely ignoring CDP and his Executive Board. But most didn’t ignore him, and even if the policy was eventually rescinded the immediate cuts in the necessary staff and resources meant the long-term effect is still felt. This entire function was controlled within Service HQs. As none of them retained the staff, it was now down to the project teams. If they didn't have someone who'd done the job in Service HQ.... For example, the RN had four people doing this on aircraft and equipment. The same four managed all the prerequisites to facilitate (e.g.) the pilot numbers calculation Lima Juliet mentioned earlier. The posts are long gone, and the last incumbents long retired. Instead of being a core central function, like many activities it's done by hundreds once in a while, with no training. A related problem was ‘training’ becoming part of ILS. It’s not. By definition it arrives too late.
My guess is the flying training people in MoD didn’t stand a chance. This is part of a much bigger problem, and MoD needs to get back to basics. It needs to understand what jobs are not volume-related.