It is not exactly clear what benefit (other than being able to sack people) having a contractor running the show will make. Will they novate contracts such as FSTA over to them? What will they do - 'improve' the contract, or manage it in the same way as now? What exactly will change? Will the management be 'better'? What does that mean? Will they discover magic efficiencies the current team are unaware of due to their "business acumen"? Its nonsense isn't it? No doubt many will recall tales of 'consultants' coming in to help projects and see that more often than not provide little or no insight that isn't obvious to the CS/Mil already employed - or infact they merely regurgitate ideas they pick from the team. The real issues are usually with the control of funding, reqt mgt & change and the interface with MB.
I do wonder how on earth the interface between MoD and a GOCO would work in practice - how many requirements would e.g. MoD control over the GOCO on a typical aircraft programme? A few KURs or a proper technical spec including intelligent application of reglations? Who is going to administer that properly with the GOCO? What is the scale of effort to be retained in MoD? Will it be much smaller than todays PT? Won't the GOCO need a PT around the same size as the DE&S PT (adding duplication) - plus they will be being paid more? Noting the "hardwired to zero" types that we've all met - surely there isn't a consensus that PTs are 'overmanned'?!?!?
It all seems to add up to less and less money available for the end user, and more and more lining the pockets of middle men.