3.29 Lessons: First of type equipment generally refers to equipment or systems that have not been proven in service with other military or commercial organisations and are new to the ADF. Because of limited knowledge and lack of precedent, first of type equipment projects experience a range of unique and interrelated issues across areas like requirements management, system development and integration, verification and validation, resourcing, schedule, contract management, and complexity in establishing a sustainable in-service support system.
3.30 Implementation: Implementation of the Defence Procurement and Sustainment Review 2008 (the Mortimer Review) addresses these lessons by requiring the DMO to be responsible and accountable for developing cost, schedule and risk analyses for military equipment, and for developing and implementing the acquisition strategy. This will build on the reform, since the implementation of the Defence Procurement Review 2003 (the Kinnaird Review), which required the DMO to have far greater involvement in the development of capability proposals. This involvement commences before projects enter the DCP and grows as projects proceed through the two-pass Government approval process to identify, manage and reduce project risk. The acquisition strategies for those projects involving first of type developmental equipment and systems require significant investment in understanding the inherent risk and then investigating and managing risk between Government approvals at First and Second Pass, as well as during contract.
3.31 The recently introduced Gate Review Assurance Boards provide independent assurance by critically examining all aspects of projects at pre-determined milestones, at different phases of their capability and materiel acquisition lifecycle, to ensure readiness for the project to proceed from one phase to the next.
3.32 The DMO has been refining its requirements and systems engineering processes, project planning, evaluation, review and contract management processes to address technical risks inherent in complex systems development and integration projects, and to plan the total costs of ownership for a capability. Further improvements are planned, to improve contracting templates and oversight to strengthen early planning of the definition and implementation of support concepts, particularly for OTS and first of type developmental systems.