Legacy tech shoots down Ministry of Defence's supply chain improvements The UK Ministry of Defence's efforts to better manage its £11.8 billion ($15 billion) of inventory hinges, in no small part, on a sweeping digital transformation program that involves modernizing legacy tech systems, but the department's track record is worrying MPs. The Public Accounts Committee has reported on progress made …
As a tech supplier to the MoD my personal experience of this is that the MoD knows what it needs but when it tells the government how much it's going to cost they tell MoD to come back with a cheaper answer. The result is a game of smoke and mirrors with specs and prices and budget cylcles where MoD ends up in a bunch of ever worsening incremental contracts with suppliers which ends up with suppliers out of pocket and £millions more being spent on something that doesn't work than it would have cost to do the job properly in the first place.
Government (of all colours) is to blame. They do the equivalent of sending the kids to the corner shop with £5 to buy £10 of food and then beating the kids when they come back without the baked beans and cheese.
Also worth a mention of the nice revolving door between people high up in the forces (plus some senior civil servants in the MOD who are also not wishing to miss out on the gravy train) & companies the MOD does a lot of business with.
This is from years ago, but general thrust of the reporting still relevant (covers other areas, not just defence)
https://www.private-eye.co.uk/pictures/special_reports/revolving-doors.pdf
Newly-minted Leftenant Jones has been assigned to Outpost "A" and since his arrival has been running around learning who does what, where things are, and how things work.
L. Jones: "Sergeant Smith, I'm told you understand how the inventory system here works."
S. Smith: "That's right, sir."
L. Jones: "Explain it to me."
S. Smith: "I could explain it to you, in its theory, but in practical use it's much different."
L. Jones: "How does it work in practical use?"
S. Smith: "Do you see those crates of fine whiskey, vodka, and Cuban cigars?"
L. Jones: "Yes ..."
S. Smith: "Those are donations I've received for understanding how the inventory system here works. I work the system for people, and items appear, or disappear, as desired, and people give me donations to express their grattitude."
L. Jones: "That ... that ... that surely is against military regulations! I shall institute an investigation of you and your cozy little 'system' at once!"
S. Smith: "DId I mention I also know how the communications system and personnel system work? I could arrange it so that you would not be able to get a landline or radio call out. Right now, the Yanks are running a sort of personnel exchange program with us. How would you like to be seconded to the Yanks' base in Adak, Alaska, for the next four years? I hear it gets a bit chilly out there."
L. Jones: "I would not like that at all. So, uhm ... how would you feel about a case of rum as a 'donation' from me?"
From Bird & Fortune, around the time of Gulf War 1
Interviewer: "So, Minister, how prepared are you for war with Saddam?"
Minister: "We've conducted a thorough assessment of the Iraqi force's capabilities"
Interviewer: "Just how thorough was that assessment?"
Minister: "Very thorough - we looked at all of the invoices"
198x: Air conditioned MOD warehouse found to contain supplies of donkey shoes (WW1 originally).
198x: MOD contracts for new equipment include (estimated) 25 year supply of spares....and then ALL the tooling is destroyed.
P.S. In the second example, THE CONTRACTORS made the estimates for the 25 year supply of spares.
So.....I wonder if anything has changed............
......oh.....wait a minute.........Official Secrets Act.......
To be fair, unless the customer is prepared to pay for long term storage and upkeep of tooling, then the contractor isn't going to do it. And "lifetime buys" are a common method of dealing with issues of having stuff available for a long time - especially (as is the case with something I was involved with in the past) the manufacturer decides they want out of what to them is a "change down the back of the sofa" market.
It's also one way round the problem of obsolescence, especially with electronics where chips come and go rather quickly. It's not unknown to be working on a redesign to work around obsolescence long before the SBAE (something big and expensive) will be going into service - or you keep an eye on things and buy in bulk before they disappear.
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