MoD urged to take new approach to IT purchases

The National Audit Office (NAO) has urged the Ministry of Defence to reconsider the way it manages IT-based acquisitions in the light of continuing delays and cost increases affecting the £2.4bn Bowman military radio and combat infrastructure platform (CIB).

In a new report, the NAO says that traditional approaches to equipment purchase, with development, production and support combined with one or more mid-life upgrades, will not deliver the desired capability in a timely manner or to an acceptable cost.

The report says Bowman CIP should be managed ‘as a programme where continual evolution and refreshment are the norm.’

Keeping to traditional specific time and cost parameters based on the idea of a project reaching a conclusion is difficult for a project in a state of continual development, says the NAO.

Bowman CIP will replace the antiquated Clansman radio network dating from the 1970s. The NAO says the project has been ‘recast’ to include an additional £121m and has a further unspecified delay until 2007.

But the report also says that initial versions of Bowman and CIP have started to deliver benefits to UK armed forces on operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

‘The secure voice radios and equipment showing the position of units has performed well and soldiers have growing confidence in them,’ says the report.

Further reading:

Bowman suffering delays

Army buys £200m battlefield network