The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has been very busy lately, the Secretary of State (SoS) for Defence, Dr Liam Fox in particular. This week the focus was not on current operations in Afghanistan and Libya but rather on structural reforms that the ministry must implement if it is to equip itself for current and future operations.

Dr Fox recently announced the completion of the long-awaited Defence Reform Review.
Although the supplier community has been patiently waiting for ‘Defence Reform: An independent report into the structure and management of the Ministry of Defence’ since the coalition came to power, the document provides the defence industry with only some of the information it requires to plan for the future. (more…)

Technorati Tags: defence reform review, Dr Fox, information, MoD

On 23 March 2011, chancellor of the exchequer George Osborne released another in a series of recent strategically important documents – the 2011 budget. Industry has been impatiently awaiting the release of this document, as its detail plays an important role in companies’ business planning. However, with a series of MoD white papers still pending, including a refresh of the MoD information strategy, the white paper on equipment, support and technology for the UK defence and security, the Defence Reform Review and Bernard Jenkins’ defence acquisition reform strategy – the defence industry is still starved of the vital information it needs to plan suitably. This hunger for information points to what many in the ICT sector know as today’s reality: information is today’s gold. (more…)

Technorati Tags: business decisions, ICT, information

It has been a busy week for the secretary of state for defence. Dr Fox lambasted the MoD’s finances, outlined plans to achieve the elixir that is value for money, appeared before the Public Accounts Committee and still found time to defend the like-for-like replacement of Trident against his coalition partners. In the midst of a response to the MoD’s green paper, the defence industry has followed such announcements with apprehension. (more…)

Technorati Tags: BBC, defence, Dr Fox, MoD

Since the election of the coalition government, the defence ICT industry has been waiting with bated breath for the National Security Strategy (NSS) and the Strategic Defence & Security Review (SDSR). The publication of these documents two weeks ago ended a long period of uncertainty and provided some initial hints on how this crucial economic sector can prepare for the future.

Yet, not all news coming out of the SDSR is positive. In addition to the cancellation of two C4ISTAR/Information Superiority (IS) projects – the Nimrod MRA4 and the Sentinel – the SDSR fails to provide a clear guide to its defence capability needs over the next decade.

The NSS asserts that ‘the new national security council has reached a conclusion that Britain’s national interest requires us to reject any notion of the shrinkage of our influence’. This assertion is backed up by the mantra that the UK will retain the skills and ability to regenerate and reconstitute the capabilities it has been forced to cut once the economy revives.

On the surface, these statements could provide a degree of assurance to the defence ICT industry. However, capability regeneration/reconstitution and the ability for the MoD to obtain its stated aim of ‘Future Force 2020’ (a force characterised by flexibility, adaptability, and connectedness) is wholly dependent on the mid-decade state of the economy. This is a huge uncertainty for the defence ICT industry to place its bets on.

So while the NSS and SDSR represent a first step forward in what has been over a year of uncertainty, many questions remain unanswered and new questions have emerged.

Technorati Tags: National Security Strategy NSS SDSR Defence & Security C4ISTAR Information Superiority Nimrod MRA4