General Procurement

[ArmChairCivvy]

Now that the new Apaches are starting to arrive from overseas, I am sure the UK industry can produce the nxt-gen, like
https://assets.newatlas.com/dims4/defau ... 2320-o.jpg
the pictured one, which
- is quieter by 2/3s (electric)
- and has no crew, so the application can be more gang-ho as casualties will not be the result (among other results)

[bobp]

Seems like the government have ordered some Medium Girder Bridges from WFEL. Posting here as i cant see anywhere else to stick it.

https://www.insidermedia.com/news/north ... d-contract

[BlueD954]

https://questions-statements.parliament ... -02/110072

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the most recent Defence Equipment Plan, whether he is taking steps to reduce UK spending on US defence industry products.

Answered on
6 November 2020

We will always prioritise our response to the threats that the UK faces and we remain committed to delivering the right capabilities for our Armed Forces while delivering value for money for the taxpayer. The Ministry of Defence (MOD) is committed to spending over £180 billion on equipment and equipment support in the next decade. In 2018-19 the MOD spent £19.2 billion with UK industry and commerce, directly supporting 119,000 jobs across the country and indirectly supporting many thousands more.

No decisions have been taken as to changes to the Defence Equipment Plan as part of the Integrated Review; in light of the decision to change the time period of the Spending Review, the Government is considering the implications for the completion of the Review and will provide an update to Parliament once these have been decided.

In addition to the Integrated Review, the MOD is leading a cross-Government review into the defence and security industrial sectors, looking at how we can ensure that the UK continues to have competitive, innovative and world-class defence and security industries, that drive investment and prosperity and that underpin national security now and in the future. We are also pursuing a range of initiatives to strengthen our relationship with the Defence industry, drive innovation and competitiveness, and support responsible exports.

[Ron5]

https://questions-statements.parliament ... -02/110072

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the most recent Defence Equipment Plan, whether he is taking steps to reduce UK spending on US defence industry products.

Answered on
6 November 2020

We will always prioritise our response to the threats that the UK faces and we remain committed to delivering the right capabilities for our Armed Forces while delivering value for money for the taxpayer. The Ministry of Defence (MOD) is committed to spending over £180 billion on equipment and equipment support in the next decade. In 2018-19 the MOD spent £19.2 billion with UK industry and commerce, directly supporting 119,000 jobs across the country and indirectly supporting many thousands more.

No decisions have been taken as to changes to the Defence Equipment Plan as part of the Integrated Review; in light of the decision to change the time period of the Spending Review, the Government is considering the implications for the completion of the Review and will provide an update to Parliament once these have been decided.

In addition to the Integrated Review, the MOD is leading a cross-Government review into the defence and security industrial sectors, looking at how we can ensure that the UK continues to have competitive, innovative and world-class defence and security industries, that drive investment and prosperity and that underpin national security now and in the future. We are also pursuing a range of initiatives to strengthen our relationship with the Defence industry, drive innovation and competitiveness, and support responsible exports.

What a totally shyte answer. Typical.

[abc123]

https://questions-statements.parliament ... -02/110072

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the most recent Defence Equipment Plan, whether he is taking steps to reduce UK spending on US defence industry products.

Answered on
6 November 2020

We will always prioritise our response to the threats that the UK faces and we remain committed to delivering the right capabilities for our Armed Forces while delivering value for money for the taxpayer. The Ministry of Defence (MOD) is committed to spending over £180 billion on equipment and equipment support in the next decade. In 2018-19 the MOD spent £19.2 billion with UK industry and commerce, directly supporting 119,000 jobs across the country and indirectly supporting many thousands more.

No decisions have been taken as to changes to the Defence Equipment Plan as part of the Integrated Review; in light of the decision to change the time period of the Spending Review, the Government is considering the implications for the completion of the Review and will provide an update to Parliament once these have been decided.

In addition to the Integrated Review, the MOD is leading a cross-Government review into the defence and security industrial sectors, looking at how we can ensure that the UK continues to have competitive, innovative and world-class defence and security industries, that drive investment and prosperity and that underpin national security now and in the future. We are also pursuing a range of initiatives to strengthen our relationship with the Defence industry, drive innovation and competitiveness, and support responsible exports.

What a totally shyte answer. Typical.

As shyte as the question.

[BlueD954]

Ok views noted.

[Ron5]

My attempt at a superior answer:

MoD purchasing decisions are driven by fitness for purpose and value for money, and are guided by the MoD's industrial strategies. Those strategies aim to improve UK's industry and are being updated in parallel with the Integrated Review. Parliament will be updated when both reviews have completed.

[SW1]

Nearly two-fifths of the Department of Defense budget — $290 billion — focuses on operations and maintenance to ensure weapon system readiness. This means less money for new equipment, less equipment availability and less fighting capacity. Those liabilities represent the core internal threat.

If the DoD can reduce the money spent on sustainment, it can increase the money available for new procurement. This statement sounds easy but is hard to execute.

Seventy percent of a system’s life-cycle cost is set during the materiel solution analysis phase before Milestone A and during the technology maturation and risk reduction phase before Milestone B. Decisions made during these phases disproportionately affect reliability. However, there is no requirement for original equipment manufacturers, or OEM, to include design for sustainment data as part of their proposals.

What if OEMs could increase a system’s reliability and decrease its life-cycle cost early in the development process by creating physics-based simulations and digital twins calibrated with operational data? Engineers could foresee sustainment issues during product design, increasing product quality and readiness while lessening operational cost and risk.

In simple terms, development time and costs go down while system reliability goes up.

Condition-based maintenance, or CBM, is the current approach to improve the reliability and availability of fielded weapon systems. But today’s CBM methods fall short.

CBM acts purely on a data-based approach, fitting algorithms to large, streaming data sets, thus relying heavily on data quality, velocity, veracity and frequency — with data interdependencies often left for experts to deduce. System technicians normally receive a few days’ notice when a component might fail. Lacking a root cause analysis, these reports cannot address why a component fails.

There’s a better way. Physics-based simulation models can, based on the operational envelope, represent the behavior of a component, system, and system of systems at various degrees. Hybrid digital twins, calibrated with real-time data from the field, can deliver a higher-quality-of-failure mode and root-cause predictions.


https://www.defensenews.com/opinion/com ... readiness/

[ArmChairCivvy]

My attempt at a superior answer:

MoD purchasing decisions are driven by fitness for purpose and value for money, and are guided by the MoD's industrial strategies. Those strategies aim to improve UK's industry and are being updated in parallel with the Integrated Review. Parliament will be updated when both reviews have completed.

The danger with that kind of answer is that you might just about create a measurable yard stick

[Ron5]

My attempt at a superior answer:

MoD purchasing decisions are driven by fitness for purpose and value for money, and are guided by the MoD's industrial strategies. Those strategies aim to improve UK's industry and are being updated in parallel with the Integrated Review. Parliament will be updated when both reviews have completed.

The danger with that kind of answer is that you might just about create a measurable yard stick

It's actually now changed. Purchase decisions are now also driven by industrial benefit that can override value for money. Potentially huge impact.

[ArmChairCivvy]

I agree with both:

"It's actually now changed.
Potentially huge impact."

except for the tense (just nuancing):
1. actually has only very recently...
2. will (potentially) have huge impact

[jonas]

Contract awarded for sonar upgrade and development :-

https://www.edrmagazine.eu/sea-awarded- ... of-defence

[jonas]

https://questions-statements.parliament ... 1-04/96777