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Defence Breakfast: Wednesday 11 November 2010

Implications of The Strategic Defence and Security Review for UK Industry

Following the highly successful breakfast in September with Bernard Gray, Nick Prest, Chairman, and Andy Thomis, Chief Executive, of Cohort plc, presented an industry focussed analysis of the SDSR and its impact as well as thoughts on the Defence Industry and Technology Policy Green Paper. 

Defence Breakfast: Tuesday 21 September 2010

Acquisition in a time of Austerity: a perspective on the Strategic Defence and Security Review. 

It has been almost a year since the publication of Bernard Gray's provocative review of defence acquisition. At our Defence Breakfast, the former defence special adviser explored the aftermath of his controversial report in light of the government's response and the current reform initiatives.  

The Gray Report

With endless reports of equipment shortages within the armed forces and the MOD's continued struggle to balance the budget, defence procurement has become a hot topic in recent years. In 2008 Bernard Gray was commissioned by the then Secretary of State for Defence, John Hutton to conduct an in depth review of the current defence acquisition process. His controversial findings, whilst not new sent shockwaves through the MOD with bold claims that questioned the competency of the MOD procurement department and made assertions that this would be better managed under private ownership. The report also claimed that the UK's current procurement programme was "overheated" and unaffordable on any likely projection of future budgets.

View the full text of The Review of Acquisition for the Secretary of State for Defence: an Independent Report by Bernard Gray (The Gray Report).

View a ministerial statement which sets out a short executive summary of the main conclusions and recommendations of The Gray Report.

The Aftermath

The Gray Report started the ball rolling on a new wave of acquisition reform. While a number of Gray's recommendations are already being implemented, such as the proposal to introduce regular, fully costed strategic defence reviews to be held in each new Parliament and the introduction of a rolling 10 year defence budget, many questions remain unanswered. In light of past precedent, there continues to be a level of scepticism as to the likelihood of success that will be achieved by this round of reform.

Bill Kincaid (for RUSI.org) provides a useful summary of Gray's key recommendations, examines its weaknesses and the likelihood of successful implementation.

In the wake of the Gray Report, Lord Drayson, Minister for Strategic Defence Acquisition Reform has set out a plan to tackle the problems in defence acquisition. View a short review of Drayson's reform agenda. 

See the links below for two recent articles which critically assess the dangers of cost-cutting and explore the void between the challenges and response to rebalancing defence expenditure:

Is Reform Enough? - a report by Dr Ted R.Bromund, senior research fellow at the Margaret Thatcher Centre for Freedom, The Heritage Foundation, Washington compares the similarities between UK and US acquisition reform and questions the significance of the role reform will play in addressing the gap between defence commitments and available resources.

More Tooth, Less Tail - a report by John Dowdy, director of Mckinsey & Company highlights the benefits in cutting costs elsewhere to maintain spending on equipment procurement.

 

Get in touch

Simon Allan

Simon Allan

BLP
Partner, Head of Defence & Aerospace

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