I never thought of it as "outsourcing" to tell you the truth. MoD weaknesses were identified. The lack of experience I spoke of. Lack of DEC support (to DPA at the time). The complete refusal of DPA higher echelons (by which I mean most IPTLs and the entire Management Board) to support their their own staffs or DEC. A framework was needed which negated this malign influence. The solution was, as ever, implementing mandated regulations, but in this case tweaking ever so slightly beyond their original scope.
If you break down the procurement cycle, from Concept to Disposal, there are numerous examples of Industry doing most of the work for many years. It is not a great leap to combine this. In practice, you only need to look at two extant contracts.
I have no idea what structure MoD/Gray will decide upon. As I said earlier, in December 2011 Gray informed the BBC he was going to implement one of the two above frameworks (the one approved in August 2001, which is by far the more comprehensive one, covering most of the procurement cycle). Only, as I said, MoD then denied he said it. The only possible reason for this was they were caught out cribbing from this ancient policy which, as I said, was based ENTIRELY upon a Def Stan that has subsequently been cancelled without replacement in about 2009, not having been amended since Jan 1991. As Chug has alluded to, what Gray was actually admitting, without knowing it, was the perceived need for "GOCO" was driven by the deliberate waste which caused the airworthiness failings; and the acceptance of the Nimrod Review (because the same Def Stan, if implemented, would have prevented the systemic failings). I believe that as soon as this was pointed out to Minister by an MP, they foolishly denied Gray's words (it is this lie which reveals their thinking and incompetence), stopped to regroup, and 16 months later have revamped it with lots of fanny new names.
I have no doubt there are scores of people who have been beavering away trying to work this out for the past 2 or 3 years. If I remember correctly, in May 2001 it was tasked as a minor job to one person on a Monday, and the first draft approved on the Wednesday. It received 3 Star endorsement in August 2001. The test cases were run over the following 4 months, encompassing almost 190 systems; some minor, some major. The contract was let and I understand it works just fine (in that domain).
Yes, there is an MoD team at both AbbeyWood and within the Service involved. Intelligent? Now there's a question.
Last edited by tucumseh; 28th Apr 2013 at 18:00.