News Review: UK Defence Secretary to 'Name and Shame' | ADM November 2011

UK online journal, Battlespace, (http://www.battle-technology.com/index.asp) reports that the UK’s Defence Secretary Dr Liam Fox intends to follow Australia’s example by publishing a list of ‘contracts of concern’, pending the outcome of a Major Projects Review Board (MPRB) meeting schedule for September.

 Speaking at DSEi on 13th September, the Defence Secretary warned that he would name those contractors who fail to rectify problems of cost escalation and delays so that the stock market would be able to identify programs at risk.

A month later Fox named the first ‘contract of concern’ – the Valiant Jetty project, which will support the Royal Navy’s Astute-class submarines at the Clyde naval base for the next 50 years . This project, awarded to AMEC plc in 2003, is nearly four years late, and some estimates put it running at £92m over cost. It should have been completed in October 2008 but is now nearly four years late, and almost 70 per cent over the contractual maximum price of £134m.

The MPRB has also reviewed the Falcon communications system and the Watchkeeper UAV-based surveillance system.

With exports worth £6 billion a year, the UK defence industry achieved a 22 per cent share of the global Defence market in 2010 while Security sector exports grew by 8 per cent to £2 billion, Battlespace reported. Dr Fox singled out the importance of SMEs: “The British success story is not just about global prime contractors” he said, “it is about small businesses who are world leaders in cutting-edge technologies – they are the lifeblood of the industry.”

Subject: Defence Industry