Defence procurement system must become more capable of converting money into military effect, analysis says
An analysis by the University of Exeter suggests that the UK's defence procurement system needs to prioritize military effectiveness over institutional preferences. The report warns that increased spending will not solve issues like slow delivery and lack of accountability without fundamental structural reform.
Why it matters
It addresses the critical challenge of how nations manage military budgets to ensure actual security outcomes in an era of rising global threats.
A focus for the Armed Forces should now be performance and “shaper discipline”
The new Government investment plan will give the UK’s defence system a better opportunity to succeed, but only if it becomes more capable of converting money into military effect, experts have said.
A focus for the Armed Forces should now be performance and “shaper discipline” while Britain’s security is under time and money pressures and increasing threats.
The analysis , for the University of Exeter’s Centre for the Public Understanding of Defence and Security, is by Air Vice-Marshal Philip Lester CBE.
He warns the move to make defence spending 3% and then 3.5% of GDP will never compensate for weak prioritisation, slow delivery, unclear accountability or a culture that avoids hard choices.
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