MPs Question Defence Firms Over Delivery Delays

MPs have been questioning representatives from defence firms over the delays in delivering new products for use by Armed Forces personnel.

The Defence Select Committee grilled senior managers and also heard how they have managed to continue operations despite COVID-19.

A recent study showed 90% of MOD procurement – essentially items bought for military use – was on budget and on time.

There is still concern, however, over the things that are not.

The National Audit Office recently reported that of 30 major procurement projects underway, only about five were on time.

A project hampered by delays is the Warrior upgrade - £250 million over budget and not in service.

MPs wanted to know why and were unhappy with the response.

In putting a question to Chief Executive of Lockheed Martin UK, Peter Ruddock, Mark Francois said: “This programme has been running for 11 years, the vehicles are very tired, the soldiers are desperate for replacement because they endlessly break down on exercise.

“You’re the Chief Executive of Lockheed Martin in the UK and you can’t even tell this committee when the thing is going to come into service. To put it politely, sir, you’ve been the Chief Exec for four-and-a-half years, what do you do all day?”

Mr Francois continued: “No don’t laugh, it’s not funny. It’s a quarter of a billion pounds of taxpayers’ money, it’s not funny.”

“I’m not saying that’s funny,” Mr Ruddock said.

“And you’re laughing”, Mr Francois replied.

Mr Ruddock continued: “No, no, no, I’m simply smiling because of the way you phrased the question, not because of the severity of the situation.”

Mr Francois asked: “So what’s the answer? When does it come into service?”

Mr Ruddock said: “As I explained Mr Francois, until we’re on contract to produce the vehicle, which we’re not at the present time, we hope to be on contract maybe later this year or early next but that will depend on the deliberations of the MOD as part of the integrated review.”

The committee also wanted to know about the resilience of defence manufacturers in the face of the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Director, Strategic Business Development, Thales, Avril Jolliffe said:

“We have spent, well, prior to COVID actually affecting us all, over the past couple of years as we have started to look at what the leaving the European Union might look like for us and our supply chain, we have actually done a lot of work working with our suppliers to understand our supply chain and where the risks are and we’ve continued that work, working very closely with our suppliers during COVID-19, in fact although some of our suppliers did actually stop working, they are all now open. We’ve had a couple of suppliers come to us in financial distress, and we have helped them out.

“So we have tried very hard to ensure that our supply base is supported within the United Kingdom and we’re able to continue delivering our projects and programmes for the MOD.

“And in fact we managed to deliver a firing of the Martlet missile from the Wildcat during lockdown actually, using socially-distanced methods so, you know, we have been able to take these things forward.”

The nature of the MOD’s relationship with businesses, to specify, design and build big-ticket items like naval ships, tanks and aircraft, is subject to a significant and ongoing integrated review.

It is the latest of 13 over recent decades, according to the Defence Select Committee Chair Tobias Ellwood, who says the conclusions have all been broadly the same - that the procurement system is not working as it should at the Ministry of Defence.