From discussions across the Department and in industry it is clear that savings to date due to support process reform and improvement may have only "scratched the surface". The support area has suffered historically from a lack of clear information, which holds up the identification of cost saving opportunities and other efficiency improvements. There needs to be a clear priority within the department to drive forward improvements or else risk knock-on pressures from an ESP that is set to grow substantially in the face of Departmental funding pressure.
The recommendations relating to TLCM are not meant to imply that defence planning should remain based on DLoD silos, but rather that the implementation of wider planning and optimisation processes could deflect attention away from significant problems in optimising across equipment and support. Longer term benefits of optimisation across all defence expenditure should remain an objective of the acquisition process, which could be realised once information systems and other organisational and process changes advocated here have been fully developed and implemented.