The DIS developed a framework of six guiding principles for the MoD:
• Appropriate sovereignty - maintain appropriate sovereignty over industrial skills and capability in critical areas
• Through-life capability management - develop architectures that increase sustainability through incremental enhancements
• Maintaining key and rapid industrial capabilities and skills - sustain key knowledge across supply chain where there is no longer a sustainable production profile
• Intelligent customers-intelligent suppliers: the importance of systems engineering - preserve systems engineering knowledge
• Value for defence - driving value for money, whilst retaining a focus on national industry
• Change on both sides - improvement by both MoD, the Government and Industry
The DIS considered that sector industry strategies were of particular importance in uncompetitive market sectors where fixed costs are significant. As a result the DIS considers a number of UK Defence industrial sectors and the cross-cutting capabilities that exist within them, including Systems Engineering, Maritime, Armoured Fighting Vehicle, Fixed-Wing, Helicopters, General Munitions, Complex Weapons, C4ISTAR, CBRN Force Protection, Counter Terrorism, Technology Priorities and Test and Evaluation.
DIS reaffirmed the Smart Acquisition principles and set out a number of further key initiatives which led to the subsequent publication of the seminal Enabling Acquisition Change report (see Chapter 8 for further detail). These initiatives were stated as:
• primacy of through-life considerations;
• coherence of defence spread across research, development, procurement and support; and
• successful management of acquisition at the Departmental level.
The DIS aimed to achieve change from both sides by also presenting industry with better guidance:
• plan for through-life capability management;
• invest in growing and maintaining a systems engineering capability in the UK;
• encourage greater levels of communication and transparency between Industry and the MoD;
• embrace open systems architecture principles and incremental acquisition approaches; and
• foster better understanding of both Industry and MoD objectives and working practices.
The DIS also highlighted the vital role technology research and development needed to play in meeting the challenges of future conflicts. These needs became the objectives of the Defence Technology Strategy (DTS, 2006) and Defence Innovation Strategy (2007).