"Powerful" aims to rapidly cut timescales of major Royal Navy, Army and RAF projects to build ships and planes

Andy Start, CEO of the Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) arm of the Ministry of Defence (MoD), outlined the ambitious plans to politicians in parliament on Monday. Sarah Hall, Labour MP for Warrington South, said in a Public Accounts Committee meeting that supply chain issues were impacting the delivery of military capabilities - resources which can be used on the frontline by all three armed forces.

This includes warships and other armaments for the Royal Navy, as well as planes for the RAF and assets for the Army. Ms Hall said career skill gaps have caused delays in projects, as well as shortages of key components and an increased demand for defence equipment in other countries.

When asked if the government has begun implementing its new procurement model, Mr Start, acting national armaments director at the National Armaments Director Group (NADG), said: “Under the previous government, we developed the integrated procurement model to recognise that the threat to the nation had changed.

“The pace we were going about acquisitions was no longer relevant, to an environment in which our adversaries were developing capabilities on the battlefield every day.” Mr Start said the model will develop different commercial pathways to get to a minimal viable capability and improve it over time, allowing assets to be on the frontline quicker.

He added: “The integrated procurement model is in place, working, and accelerating pace. We’re learning a lot from Ukraine. We’re taking those extra lessons into the way we’ll modify the model further under the strategic defence review and defence industrial strategy."

A wealth of new capabilities are being produced for the forces, but many are years away. The new Type 26 and 31 frigates, which are due to replace their Type 23 counterparts in the Royal Navy fleet, are not due until the late 2020s and early 2030s. Many projects are also at risk of being riddled with delays and overbudget.

Mr Start said under the new plan, military procurement budgets will be broken down into three segments. The first is long-term strategic platforms, covering ships, submarines and aircraft - where the time to market is hoping to be shrunk from six years to two years. The second is spiral development projects, covering upgrades to existing military platforms. The aim is to reduce deadlines from three years to one 12 month period.

The third is rapid commercial exploitation, where new technologies are fielded within months. Mr Start said a “3-2-1 process” will be used to make procurement more effective, where the MoD seeks three bids, conducts two trials and scales up the one capability which works the best.

“That’s really powerful in terms of the effect it’s having on the battlefield, but it’s also transforming the relationship we’ve got with SMEs, and the private equity and venture capitalists that support them,” he added. “If you can get the procurement timescales down to three months, you’re now in the timescale which is attractive to the PE and VC community. That’s really exciting and you’ll see a lot more of that to come.”