Originally Posted by
Not_a_boffin
I'd probably start by questioning the veracity of that assertion. If it was made by Penfold, Spellar, Jones or Nice But Tobias, I'd treat it with a degree of scepticism. It's not like the HC DSC is stuffed with intellectual giants, nor indeed that all of its "witnesses" are not "witlesses".
Defence procurement is difficult. Most of that difficulty is caused by a combination of funding annuality, the split between RDEL and CDEL (often not enough of the former), scope change as alluded to up thread and lack of suitably qualified people. That's before the politicians get involved.
Look at Jones current vendetta against Boeing. According to Jones, Wedgetail should not have been contracted - instead some other (as yet unidentified) solution should have been chosen. Similarly the latest Chinook buy is somehow an affront to other unspecified manufacturers who have the equivalent ready to go.
In both cases, the issue is not Boeing, but actually service and MoD personnel trying to manage funds on an annual basis and incurring escalating costs while doing so. John Healey is wrong about just about everything, but he did pick up on the reduction in RDEL which will continue to cripple defence until policy is changed.
Sorry I began to question my own memory there. I actually heard it said on Newsnight a few weeks ago by Francis Tusa, editor of Defence Analysis. It was Newsnight on 8 March, if anyone's interested, which is available on iPlayer. Quite depressing.