Steerpike Steerpike

Why is the Ministry of Defence so useless?

Gavin Williamson meeting Vice Chief of the Defence Staff Gordon Messenger and MoD Permanent Secretary Stephen Lovegrove on his appointment as Defence Secretary in 2017. Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images

A new Commons report is out today and it does not make for happy reading. The Ministry of Defence’s (MoD) system of procurement is ‘broken’ with billions of taxpayers’ money wasted, according to a cross party committee of MPs. The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) judges that out of the MoD’s 20 largest projects, 13 were running late by a cumulative total of 21 years. 

This includes the £4 billion farce of the Ajax armoured vehicle — a piece of kit that has thus far managed to inflict more damage on its users than its targets, thanks to its excessive vibration and noise which left crews suffering from nausea, swollen joints and tinnitus. Currently there is ‘no timescale’ when it will be ready for service. All this has left the PAC with the depressing conclusion that last year’s £16.5 billion increase in defence spending — the biggest uptick in defence spending since the Cold War — will go entirely towards mismanaged defence procurement projects, with no additional capacity whatsoever.

Not for nothing has Ben Wallace hauled in defence chiefs for a dressing-down. Steerpike has never been slow to criticise politicians for their blunders but in the MoD it seems much more institutional, than political, given the litany of errors in recent years. Over the past decade-and-a-half there has been the £430 million wasted on the warrior armoured vehicle, £2.5 billion overspent on two aircraft carriers, £1.35 billion extra for aspects of the nuclear weapons programme and seven years delay to the Dreadnought submarines.

But Wallace’s criticisms are not just confined to defence procurement; the Defence Secretary is said to have become ‘exasperated’ by a string of incidents involving culture and conduct in the service. Among these include the alleged killing of a Kenyan prostitute in 2012 by a British soldier and its subsequent investigation, the suicide of a female Sandhurst cadet in 2019, bullying allegations and senior officers being probed about false education allowance claims. More

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Steerpike
Written by
Steerpike

Steerpike is The Spectator's gossip columnist, serving up the latest tittle tattle from Westminster and beyond. Email tips to steerpike@spectator.co.uk or message @MrSteerpike

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