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UK signs £150m FIST tranche with Thales
September 8th, 2009 | DSEI 2009 | Posted by Tom Kington
Members of the British Army's Irish Guard sport weapons featuring the Surveillance and Target Acquisition portion of the Future Integrated Soldier Technology program.
The UK government has signed a £150 million contract with Thales for a tranche of its Future Integrated Soldier Technology program, Quentin Davies, UK Defense Equipment and Support minister said on September 8.
The contract covers around 11,000 sets of weapons sights, observation equipment and target acquisition equipment, which will serve about 95 companies of dismounted soldiers.
Entry into service expected in late 2010, industry and defense officials said at an event marking the signing of the contract at the DSEi 2009 show in London.
Full delivery on the contract is expected by June 2014, said Thales, which is acting as prime contractor on the FIST program.
Known as Strand 1A of the FIST contract, the newly contracted tranche will be followed by 1B, covering C4I equipment. That contract will be signed “within a small number of months,” said Davies. An industry official added that the 1B contract, which would have a value similar to 1A, would be signed by year end.
The Strand 1A package includes thermal sights from UK firm Qioptiq, close quarter battle sights from UK firm Shield, lightweight day sights from Canadian firm Elcan, underslung grenade launcher sights from UK firm Istec, underslung grenade launcher fire control systems and Commanders’ Target Locating Systems from Vectronix, digital cameras from UK firm Olympus and infantry periscopes from Israel’s Uniscope.
While putting together a package of largely off the shelf products, officials said that integration work had been undertaken to ensure minimal total weight and power consumption.
Tags: FIST, surveillance, Thales, UK
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
Shadow defense minister says UK military risks downsizing to Belgian status
September 7th, 2009 | DSEI 2009 | Posted by Tom Kington
In a stinging attack on the defense policy of the UK’s governing Labour Party, shadow defense minister Gerald Howarth warned on Monday that the UK military risks shrinking to become a force on par with the Belgian army.
“Some question whether we can afford to carry on as a global player, given the Gordon Brown legacy,” he said in a speech to defense and industry officials in London, which he released for publication.
“Do we really want to drop down into the Third Division of nations alongside, say, Belgium?”
As the UK nears a general election next year, the opposition Conservative Party is beating the incumbent Labour Party in opinion polls.
Howarth said it was “unacceptable” that the government had not yet published the findings of a report on UK defense procurement written by businessman Bernard Gray, despite the leaking of it to the UK press.
“The process is far too cumbersome and bureaucratic – apparently described by Bernard Gray as ‘sclerotic’,” said Howarth, adding that the UK current procurement program outstretches resources and that the top 20 programmes have experienced historic cost growth of £2.95 billion and suffered total delays of 483 months.
In his speech, Howarth spelt out the main tenets of his party’s defense policy, starting with maintaining an independent nuclear deterrent and operating aircraft carriers.
“We are committed to maintaining a vibrant defence industrial base in the UK,” he added.
“Under Labour there has been investment in immediately required kit to fight in Afghanistan and Iraq, but the Royal Navy has been hollowed out, the RAF is saddled with a ridiculous PFI for air-to-air refuelling, and the Army has had to manage with 40 year old armoured vehicles,” he said.
Tags: howarth, procurement, UK
Former UK defense minister throws weight behind Green Paper
September 7th, 2009 | DSEI 2009 | Posted by Tom Kington
Former UK defense minister John Hutton has thrown his weight behind a planned autumn defense Green Paper, which he believes will offer invaluable insight into the UK’s use of fast track procurements for forces in Afghanistan.
In a speech to defense and industry officials in London, which he released for publication, Hutton said he “welcomed” the chance for a “radical and imaginative” paper on reforming defense acquisition in the run up to a planned UK Strategic Defense Review, the first since 1998.
“We need to better understand the long term implications of the Urgent Operational Requirement process for the country’s defence budget going forward. That is why it is important there needs to be a full and proper analysis in the Green Paper of what has worked well and what hasn’t,” said Hutton, who unexpectedly resigned in June.
“Above all, we should always aim to keep the UOR process as simple as possible. We should not be averse to using off the shelf solutions where necessary as these can help reduce costs, create fewer bottlenecks, reduce time to delivery and create greater commonality with our allies,” he said.
“The challenge is to find the way to incorporate the many positive features of UORs into the long term equipment programme whilst avoiding the risk that we try and make UORs look more and more like the long term equipment programme itself.”
Retired Gen. Sir Jack Deverell, a former Commander in Chief of NATO Allied Forces North, warned that UORs could create as well as solve problems.
“The Green paper should see where UORs are creating problems downstream in terms of through life cost, through life maintenance and integration. Complex integration tends to be sidelined,” said Deverell on the sidelines on the conference.
Gerald Howarth, an opposition Conservative MP and shadow defense minister accused the UK government of launching the Green Paper to conceal its inertia in defense planning ahead of next year’s general election.
“They should have done this years ago. It is clearly a panic measure in the dying days of the government. I am not in the least bit hopeful it will produce valuable work,” he said.
Hutton said that regular Strategic Defense Reviews should be henceforth undertaken regularly.
“Our armed forces have some of the best equipment in the world at their disposal. But it also clear that more thinking needs to be done in over such matters such as strategic air lift, UAVs, armoured fighting vehicles, and network capabilities,” he said.
Tags: Green Paper, procurement, UK, UOR