A necessary requirement

摘要

Earlier this year, the Ministry of Defence published its Strategy for Acquisition Reform - its response to the hard-hitting investigation into the subject by Bernard Gray. Industry welcomed the Gray report, which rightly identifies the need for action to correct the imbalance between the programme and the available resources. The absence of a full strategic review is at least partially to blame for the current equipment programme becoming so out-of-kilter with the available resources. Without achieving this balance, government cannot plan future investments. This uncertainty is expensive to the taxpayer and curtails industry's ability to plan its own investments. Pressures of the economic downturn of the last 18 months have generated an additional impetus for acquisition reform and industry is keen to work with government to tackle this challenge.