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EUROPEAN NEWS
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ISSN 1416-300X Volume 12, Issue 2, July 2010

DEST MINISTER OPENS DVD AND SIGNALS ‘REINVIGORATED AGENDA’ FOR EXPORTS
By Yvonne Headington

The Defence Equipment, Support and Technology (DEST) Minister The Rt. Hon. Peter Luff M.P. marked the official opening of DVD 10 on 23rd July. He emphasised that the new Government would ensure that the Armed Forces "receive the equipment they require when they need it, at a reasonable cost to the taxpayer". Industry will be provided with a firm basis on which to plan through the work of the Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) and a new Defence Industrial Strategy (DIS). Exports not only support jobs but also help to reduce the UK's own Defence acquisition costs. In addition, Defence exports underpin the UK's strategic relationships with other countries. The relationship with the US remains particularly important but co-operation with France "is also a very high priority for me" the Minister said.

Any future equipment programme will be tested against five criteria: capability (rather than talking about equipment programmes as if they exist in the abstract the focus should be on whether a piece of equipment enables the Armed Forces to fight effectively and win on the modern battlefield), affordability (procurement and through-life costs), adaptability (achieving equipment flexibility), interoperability (for Combined and Joint operations) and exportability (benefiting the economy as a whole).

The Minister reiterated that the MoD's first priority is operations in Afghanistan. The Ministry's second priority is the "policy-led, resource-informed" SDSR. This "will not be a salami-slicing Review" he said. It will be a "step-change" based on relevance (an opportunity to dispense with legacy systems), realism (it is not possible to ensure against every risk) and responsibility (to the Armed Forces). Reinforcing recent comments by the Defence Secretary, the Minister indicated that there would be tough choices – winners and losers. However the Government is not in the business of managing decline. Industry will be helped to plan for the future by bringing the budget into balance and providing better predictability over the longer term. However, industry will need to become genuine partners in this process. In turn, industry's profitability should be increased by "our reinvigorated agenda for defence exports" said the Minister.

The Minister went on to say that in the past there was a feeling that Defence exports were an embarrassment. "There will be no such embarrassment from the Government" he said, adding that the he was looking at "any area that we can improve to make sure that Defence exports can be improved". However, he would not elaborate on what these measure might be.

There was also a word of caution concerning the current, over-committed procurement programme. The Minister said that "we have got to be more realistic upfront….programmes have crept in that should never have been allowed to creep in". Not wishing this to be a criticism of DE&S, the Minister emphasised his respect for those working at Abby Wood. "Look at the work on UORs" he said. "Sensational – brilliant!".

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