Recommendation 6

Further cost reductions within in-service support should be pursued vigorously and the aspirations of TLCM should be reappraised

a)  Significant further external work should be commissioned as a matter of urgency into the costs and function of in-service equipments.

b)  Once a new Strategic Defence Review has determined the future force structure for the MoD there should be much more use of contracting for availability to be included in initial equipment acquisition to align incentives between manufacturers and MoD.

c)  Role of TLCM and Programme Boards to be re-considered. Current structure overly complex and lacking data for decisions.

d)  TLCM to focus in first instance on financial modelling of acquisition vs. support costs. Financial models to be acquired to model these variables (cf. British Airways), DGD Commercial to control, reporting to MoD DG Finance.