The British government must speed up defense procurement and restructure its relationship with private industry to prepare the country for a possible war within 1,000 days, a House of Lords committee said in a report.
The Lords Industry and Regulators Committee said the Ministry of Defense should abandon its rigid, cost-driven and overly prescriptive buyer-seller model with companies in favor of a more flexible partnership. Bureaucracy meant to prevent waste of public money has instead slowed procurement significantly without reducing waste, the report said. It added that investors need greater assurance on contract timelines and content.
The committee said the ministry should stop defaulting to following procedures and focus on developing capabilities quickly. The government should be willing to take risks in buying new technologies, accept that the finished product may differ from what was first planned, and put speed ahead of cost control, it said.
The report cited warnings from Defense Secretary Wes Streeting, who has pointed to hybrid threats from Russia and said Britain must be ready for a possible attack by 2030. It also noted Chancellor John Healey’s pledge to raise defense spending to 3% of gross domestic product by 2030, and said a Defense Investment Summit in December should give industry the assurances it needs.
A Ministry of Defense spokesperson said the government has made the largest increase in defense spending since the Cold War and has invested about 300 billion pounds ($395 billion) to improve the armed forces’ readiness for war. The spokesperson said the budget for small and medium-sized businesses has been increased by 2.5 billion pounds ($3.3 billion).
