Squirrel,
Contractorisation is the only way forward - most of the Civil Servants employed in De&S are simply not upto the job and, even worse, have no desire to aspire to be upto it. There will always be a place for the contractor.
In many of the projects or programmes the real expertise will come from brought-in personnel that, in many cases, is all that keeps things on track. Civil Servents almost accept it as part of their job to be ignorant about their projects - 'that is what the military or contractors are for'. The end user may as well be on the moon as long as the programme is on time and coming in on cost - that is all that matters to them because = bonus!! There are some much cited examples of lateness and overspend but some do come in on time and they tend to be simple projects. Industry laughs at the MOD and its processes...
So bring it on - DE&S needs a kick up the backside and DE&S needs to get smart when holding industry to their promises and contracts. This is my take gained from a not wholly-enjoyable experience in DE&S so please don't knock it
