The Ministry of Defence has today published details of how it will equip the Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force over the next 10 years and how this will be funded.
For the first time, the government has set out a fully-funded Defence Equipment Plan totalling almost £160 billion.
The affordability of this plan has been scrutinised by the National Audit Office (NAO) and their independent analysis is also published today. The NAO makes clear that the MOD has:
The publication of the equipment plan follows the Defence Secretary’s announcement last year that the Defence Budget has been balanced for the first time in more than a decade and that the MOD is taking a new approach to financial planning.
Within the equipment and equipment support budget of around £160 billion over the next ten years, Philip Hammond has introduced for the first time a contingency of £4.8 billion to manage cost variation and protect existing projects.
In addition, within the £160 billion, £8 billion is currently unallocated. This will be allocated as new equipment priorities emerge over the decade and only once the MOD is confident that they are affordable and therefore deliverable.
Priorities will be decided by the Armed Forces Committee, chaired by the Chief of the Defence Staff.
Structuring the Defence Equipment Plan and the budget that supports it in this way will enable the MOD to deliver Future Force 2020.
The equipment plan includes the following major investments in state-of-the-art military capabilities and their support over the next ten years:
The Defence Equipment Plan gives the defence industry more information than ever before about the MOD’s priorities to enable them to invest in the capabilities the military will require.
Defence Secretary Philip Hammond said:
“It is essential that our forces are fully equipped to respond to the range of threats we face in this uncertain world. This £160 billion equipment plan will ensure the UK’s Armed Forces remain among the most capable and best equipped in the world, providing the military with the confidence that the equipment they need is fully funded.
For the first time in a generation the Armed Forces will have a sustainable equipment plan.
Step by step, we are clearing up the culture of over-promising and under-delivering that created a multi-billion pound black hole in the Defence Budget. Today’s NAO report confirms that we were right to take the difficult decisions to cut unaffordable expenditure and balance the books.”
Chief of the Defence Staff, General Sir David Richard s, said:
“Successful operations rely on a proper equipment programme based on sustained funding into the future. Through the Armed Forces Committee to the Defence Board, all 3 Services now have greater input and more certainty than ever before about what equipment they will have and when.
The clarity provided by the equipment plan builds on the confidence in the budget and shows that Future Force 2020 is affordable and achievable. Our Armed Forces will have the capabilities to respond to global threats and provide the nation’s defence.”
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[mappress] Naval Today Staff, January 31, 2013; Image: UK MoD