Posted by Think Defence in Business on August 11, 2009
When faced with the incredibly disturbing headlines of £15million light helicopters there is a temptation to automatically assume that a deal is a bad one because it is British. The Defence Industrial Strategy attempts to maintain both sovereign capabilities necessary for our strategic defence and a competitive landscape necessary for value for money.
It was actually a good attempt at balancing these seemingly opposing ideals but in the face of market led manufacturer consolidation and growth combined with short term and falling defence procurement budgets it is crying out for a revision. DIS 2 has long been promised but has now been kicked into the long grass of the next Strategic Defence Review, due, realistically after the next general election.
The difficulties of maintaining strategic sovereign capabilities AND a competitive market are not unique to the UK, looking at the G8 they all have the exactly the same problems to a greater or lesser degree. If one looks at the major equipments of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia or the USA there will be found mostly indigenous produced items. Aircraft, tanks, rifles, ships, helicopters and transport vehicles are typically those categories that have a large proportion of natively designed and produced equipments.
There are of course some variations but the trend is to by ‘home grown’
We should also not forget that after the USA we have the world’s largest defence export industry, earning valuable foreign currency, paying tax and supporting thousands of highly paid jobs, whose occupants also pay tax.
It is very tempting to say the Armed Forces should have the best the world can offer and to hell with the industrial consequences, the emotion of this argument is hard to counter but it is just as important for the status of the nation and in a practical way to own the means of maintaining one’s own defence.
When comparing Defence with other spending departments it should also be noted that other departments simply spend, health and social security for example, only support the economy by supporting a workforce. Defence not only does this but makes a significant contribution to the nation’s wealth by virtue of these exports.
Can we make a special case for defence?
Read more…