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Shadow Defense Secretary lays out acquisition reform plans
September 7th, 2009 | DSEI 2009 | Posted by Antonie Boessenkool
LONDON – The Shadow Secretary of Defence on Monday outlined the conservative party’s plans for reforming U.K. defense should his party win the general election next year, saying defense is likely to become an election issue.
“We need to focus more on capability, and less on specific equipment,” Liam Fox said at a conference organized by Jane’s on the eve of the DSEi show in London.
To balance defense spending priorities to meet the needs of current and potential future conflicts, Fox said, a future conservative government “would immediately do three things: first, launch a wide-ranging and detailed strategic defense review. Second, conduct an in-depth capability review, and third, a radical root-and-branch reform of the procurement process.”
Fox referred to the cost overruns and delays mentioned in a recent but as yet unpublished report by Bernard Gray, a former adviser at the MoD. That report estimated that the MoD’s defense equipment plans are underfunded by GBP 35 billion and on average five years behind schedule.
“Expected cost overruns in the next ten years alone amount to GBP16 billion. This equates to unfunded liability of GBP 4.4 million per day,” Fox said. “With headline equipment programs utterly unmatched by funding, future defense procurement becomes little more than a child’s wish list to Santa.
“If half of what is in the Gray report is true, the next government will not only have the task of balancing defense priorities between the conflicts we face today and the ones of tomorrow, but will also have the challenge of putting back on track a decade of mismanagement and neglecting MoD’s finances,” he said.
Other aspects of the conservatives’ plan for defense include closer cooperation with the United States in procurement and examination of personnel levels in defense.
“The number of civilians in the MoD is larger than the Royal Navy and the RAF combined,” Fox said. “We need to do a proper capability review which looks at all aspects of manning and force structure to ensure that we have the right balance of personnel both in and out of uniform.”
Procurements would be evaluated on whether they meet needs, are affordable and adaptable, whether they are interoperable with allies and whether they can be exported, Fox said.
The last Strategic Defence Review in the U.K. took place in 1998, too long ago to keep up with changes and new demands in defense, Fox said. The Labor party said in July a strategic defense review would be conducted after the new parliament is elected in the election next year. Fox said the conservative party, should they win, would conduct a review every four to five years.
Tags: conservative party, Liam Fox, strategic defense review, UK