They've made a complete arse of the entire 3rd/4th Line concept.
Agreed.
Pre-DARA, work scheduled to be carried out there was “free of charge” to MoD(PE) project managers, in that it was centrally funded so they did not have to make financial provision. For example, the Rotary Wing Support Line would fund Fleetlands.
The year it was announced projects would have to pay hard cash, PE was told it would have to fund this from existing project funding. Hitherto, while the need for a funding source had been recognised, we’d been told we’d get an uplift. The RW Support Line was more or less closed down, which was presented as a huge saving by beancounters, and capability had to be chopped to fund the Fleetlands work. (The same happened when DERA became QinetiQ and DSTL). But then matters got worse.
At the time, I had two major upgrade programmes running, with 47 aircraft for conversion, all duly scheduled in the Fleetlands Blue Book. Also, in excess of 3000 LRUs for modification, at both Fleetlands and Sealand. At a stroke, I was informed Fleetlands “No longer regard MoD(PE) as a customer” and I should take my business elsewhere. (At the time, their new Chief Exec was a retired Air Cdre). Have you any idea how much that work costs on the “open” market and how much delay Fleetland’s decision would have caused had I competed the work, as I was meant to? As it was, I single tendered the job as quick as I could, before the bosses could insist I waste more of the budget, and the ISD was met. Others didn’t. Fleetlands staff, disgusted at this because they could see the harm it was doing (and inevitable job losses), told me this was repeated across many projects.
The above amounted to one of the largest cuts by stealth the aviation component of the Defence Budget has ever seen. Not a word of protest was heard outside the confines of one or two aircraft project offices in MoD(PE). We were told to shut up, wind it in and knowingly waste money. We were instructed NOT to meet Time, Cost or Performance targets, at the very time MoD and Government were trumpeting “Smart Procurement”. Not one Service HQ would back up PE and all proclaimed themselves happy that ISDs would slip, capability erode and future budgets decrease. Please bear this in mind next time you want to chastise “procurers”. The cost of the Plant & Machinery at St Athan pales into insignificance. Those of you who remember the management structure at the time will immediately see the links between Fleetlands and St Athan.