Well that was an interesting read.... A rather stark and blunt assessment of the program to date, with not much good news for the future. MRH was doomed from the start because of poorly defined requirements, a poor comprehension of the level of development of the aircraft and even more poorly written contracts. The end result is that the Commonwealth took on far to much risk with few protections. Ever since then it has been trying to play catch up.
Not only that, but the Commonwealth even outsourced the purse strings for maintenance functions, resulting in maintenance costs exponentially exceeding fair value. Pages 179 onwards detail some of the outrageous prices being charged for parts and fleet running costs. Who would have thought????
Off the shelf purchases have their time and place, as do developmental purchases. The risks attributed to each though have to be thoroughly understood and protected against. MRH is a classic example of not knowing what you want, accepting a risk here, one there, one over there. Eventually you're over-exposed, having only hope to rely on, and then get taken to the cleaners.
I have serious reservations about DMOs ability to handle developmental acquisitions (or basically any acquisition). How do you think designing and building our own subs will go? Between DMO and our 'fantastic' ship building industry, there is no hope in hell of ever being able to pull it off.