Step Forward (again) Lord Levene

The Defence Reform Unit is being set up under Lord Levene to oversee the changes outlined in the speech below.

The DRU will work with the Permanent Secretary, Chief of the Defence Staff and the Service Chiefs to find ways of devolving greater responsibility for the running of the Services themselves.

Lord Levene will therefore have tremendous power and this will no doubt ruffle some feathers, which is always a good thing but what are his qualifications for the job of reforming the basket case that is the MoD that can quite happily spend money on dubious nonsense like diversity conferences, can’t even run its accounts without having them qualified by the NAO, repeatedly wastes money on farcical procurement programmes and until very recently could not even properly clothe its own soldiers.

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Earth Calling MoD, Earth Calling MoD

Not a day goes by without the latest rumour of cuts or the need to respond to the dire state the MoD’s finances are in.

We discuss merging services, cutting programmes, destroying capability and withdrawing from operations as a means of cutting cost.

Yet despite this intense atmosphere it seems the people at the MoD public relations/news management/web team can still find enough time to tell us all something vitally important to the coming SDSR or operation in Afghanistan, the rising up the Pink List for example!

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Financially Incompetent

Is there really anything to add

Oh, yes, of course there is

MoD Gifts £26million to the Northern Ireland Assembly (H/T UK Defence Forum)

And there’s more where that came from

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Linking A400 and FSTA

Liam Fox has been urging industry to improve value for money for the taxpayer. The irony is that the majority of cost inflation is caused by government interference but that’s another story.

“The defence programme is entirely unaffordable – especially if we try to do what we need to do in the future while simultaneously doing everything that we’ve done in the past

Without cost containment in the current programmes, we have no option but to either cut the programmes currently under way or curtail investment in future programmes. We demand, and the nation expects, that our armed forces are provided with the equipment and support they require to do the jobs that we ask them to do. But in addition, we demand, and the nation expects, that we can demonstrate value for money on defence expenditure”

Serious stuff indeed.

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Remind Me Again Why We Need Lynx Wildcat

The Lynx Mk9A has been in Afghanistan since May this year and are performing rather well.

This is a report from may this year

Commenting on the new(ish) aircraft Deputy Squadron Commander, Captain Pete Marfleet said;

“It’s fantastic to have the new Lynx MK9A with its upgraded engines as it means we can be here throughout the summer, supporingt the troops on the ground through the toughest time of the year. Success for us means we’ve got a convoy or a support helicopter in and out of a patrol base without any trouble. Just our presence in the overhead and the threat from our weapons systems means that the enemy wisely keep their heads down.”

One of the squadrons instructors said;

“This is a massively capable aircraft. The environment in Afghanistan is challenging to say the least but it copes extremely well. The manufacturers have done a fantastic job. Its capability means that we can take the fight to the enemy if required.”

Hats off to Agusta Westland then, clearly a well regarded aircraft has been substantially improved.

The upgrade of the Mk9′s means they will be in service until 2016, there are 22 upgraded airframes. The new engines are the same as those being fitted into the Lynx Wildcat.

The upgrade has cost about £4.5million per aircraft for the second batch, the first batch cost about £6.5million

This might not seem exceptional value for money but compare that to the cost of the Lynx Wildcat at £1.7billion for just over 60 aircraft.

Here is a quick idea on how we can save a lot of money.

Cancel the Lynx Wildcat and simply upgrade a few more Mk 7′s

We really have to ask ourselves if the extra capabilities offered by Wildcat are worth the money when the upgrades are doing so well. It might also be interesting to ask Agusta Westland what capabilities and performance we will in fact be losing in the upgrade as well.

For the price of a Wildcat we could perhaps squeeze 5 upgrades out of the budget.

As they say on Big Brother

Who goes, you decide!

Trident and the Core Budget – In or Out

Just been watching Liam Fox on the Andrew Marr show in which he asked Liam Fox if the Trident replacement would be in the core budget or not, pretty straightforward question.

Were you expecting a straight answer?

Here is what he said

There has always been an understanding that the budget for the nuclear deterrent came from outside the defence budget, the core defence budget, running costs for the detterent have alwas come from inside the defence budget although the capital costs were outside so thats something which are discussing in the run up to the spending review

Sniffing a bit of nonsense Andrew Marr stopped him and asked for a clarifiation,,  in or oout

To take the capital costs would make it very difficult to maintain what we are currently doing in terms of capabilities so there is an ongoing debate, as you know, with the Treasury on almost every aspect of the government at the present time

Andrew Marr then asked another straightforward question

If you had to take the capital costs of Trident inside your defence budget what would that mean for things like the army?

The response was less than convincing

Thats rather impossible to say

After a discussion about how the defence review will proceed Andrew Marr comes back again on the question of Trident and the core budget

If you had to take that capital cost and it seems me that it  is still up for debate, you may have to to that, then the implications for Trident and the rest of the defence budget are extremely grave

Bloody too right Andrew

Well I think you can leave that to me and the Chancellor to have a discussion about that over the longer period

He then went on to discuss Cold War legacies and cyberspace

Anyone convinced?

Sharing with the French

In principle, I think sharing carefully selected defence capabilities with the French makes sense.

The French forces are extremely professional and despite the unfair characterisation of them in various UK and US quarters, do get involved in international operations.

Beyond the banter and jokes about Wellington and Roast Beef, at a tactical and operational level, relations are very good and respect is mutual.

We have much in common, perhaps too much.

The French armed forces also face many of the same issues that the UK does, shrinking budgets, defence inflation and a defence industry that is seen as a strategic asset, worthy of nurturing.

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Bring Out Your Cuts, Bring Out Your Cuts

As part of the warm up act for the forthcoming inter service wrangling it seems the RAF are first out of the traps with an offer to retire the Tornado early, close 3 bases and even cancel the MRA4.

Expect similar reactions from the other 2 services but as usual the RAF just seem to be better at this kind of thing!

Remember guys, get your suggestions in early, make them big and make sure you protect your sacred cows.

I predict no change to CVF, confirmation of JCA with a slight reduction and FRES to remain intact.

Everything else is up for grabs.

The Treasury are also reportedly telling the MoD that the capital costs of the Trident replacement are going to have to come out of the MoD’s core equipment budget unlike the current situation. By 2020 this would be consuming about a quarter of the MoD’s capital budget.

If this is the case then the services offering to cancel one or two programmes isn’t going to cut it, major surgery is going to be needed and my predictions above might even be completely wrong

We are not alone either, the French and Germans are suggesting cuts in NH90, A400, Typhoon and Tiger and the US Senate has just voted to cut the US DoD budget by $8billion.

By the way fellas, why has no one commented on my blimps and towers article, was it that bloody awful?

The Management of Decline

Lets be honest, the forthcoming Defence Review is not going to be increasing capabilities in anything, it is all very depressing

But in all the talk of cold war relics, not becoming sea blind or various other phrases that seem not to actually make sense, the real decline is pretty stark. The figures below are taken from the Defence Analytical Services and Advice (DASA) and show the reality of the last few years.

Stats can be used to show anything and behind the numbers are all sorts of interesting stories, differences in capabilities, the capacity for efficiency savings, the actual availability versus what is on the books, what went before and what is planned.

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Defence Acquisition and the SDSR

By Peter Luff MP, Minister for Defence Equipment, Support and Technology

This is an abridged version of a speech given at the DVD 2010 show on 23rd June 2010 Read more…

A tale of two headlines, and other stuff

I will start this post with a few select quotations from the Secretary of State for Defence, Dr Liam Fox MP

Whilst in Afghanistan recently

“I will give you my promise that we will do everything we can to ensure that, whatever you are asked to do, you are properly, fully equipped to do so, to maximise your chance of success and minimise the risk to you.”

His welcome speech on the first day of his new job

“Resources will be tight for the country as a whole and Defence is no exception. We must make sure that we make every penny spent on Defence count. This means we will have to look again at all that we currently do, including the organisation and structure of the Department, each of the Services and the support area to ensure that we can undertake confidently and effectively the key tasks for which MOD is responsible.”

Before getting his new office

“Now we have 99,000 in the army and 85,000 civilians in the MoD. Some things will have to change and believe me they will.”

In a speech in June this year

“We intend to create a more efficient and leaner centre where everyone knows what they are responsible for and who they are accountable to – with the deadlines and budgetary disciplines taken for granted elsewhere”

So one might think the entire MoD was on a war footing, focussing 110% of their energy on the business of achieving some kind of desirable outcome in Afghanistan, the Indian Ocean or any of the other operations we are involved in?

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MoD Signs the FRES Scout Order

Well, at least for the demonstration phase

The demonstration phase is for 7 prototypes and a total value of £500 million.

Yes, that £500 million for 7 prototypes, it’s not a spelling mistake.

Inflation eh, the last time we tried to replace CVR(T) with something new, the TRACER programme only 8 years ago, it only cost £131 million and that was for a similar development phase but with two manufacturing consortia and two separate designs. Read more…

New Vehicle Orders

A number of orders have been confirmed at this years Defence Vehicle Dynamics (DVD) show.

An additional 140 Jackal 2A’s and 28 Wolfhounds will be obtained.

The Jackal 2A is the latest version that features additional cab protection. Some might say the need for additional protection could have been foreseen by anyone with eyes and a brain and successive versions have featured greater protection and the older versions are likely to be upgraded. The UK has clung to the mantra of mobility providing protection, but almost inevitably, add weight and armour as reality chips away at the doctrine. Read more…

Defence Select Committee

Towards the end of the last parliament the Select Committee was unflinching its criticism of the MoD, the last couple of reports definately pulled no punches.

Read the transcripts of the sessions, rather than the sanitised final reports and it is clear that the relationship between the committee and military and civilian staff at the MoD was difficult to say the least.

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So, its 25% then

25% cut over the next 5 years.

No cuts to capital spending beyond those already announced, does this mean CVF, A400 and T3 are safe?

No, didn’t think so.

This is the starting point for the forthcoming Strategic Defence and Security Review.

Good to know that Indian soldiers won’t be facing the same, thanks partly to the largesse of the UK tax payer.

Just remember this, when we are putting stamps on those brown envelopes addressed to UK service personnel.

There is also a pay freeze for any public sector employee earning over £21k

So that would be senior Privates, Lance Corporals and above then.

Read the full details here