Airbus UK defence chair: Britain must speed up on procurement
Britain must speed up its defence procurement process amid a fast-evolving global threat environment, the chairman of Airbus Defence and Space UK has warned.
“So the thing for me really is speed of procurement,” Ben Bridge told Morning Wire in an interview, noting the “three to four year cycle of coming up with requirements, staffing it and putting it out as a competition” for tenderers.
Multiple year waits amid changing governments and challenges throughout the procurement process ultimately result in a final product which “isn’t agile and probably isn’t giving the UK what it needs,” Bridge, a former Royal Navy helicopter pilot with over two decades experience at BAE Systems and Airbus, argued.
The UK’s defence procurement system is facing growing scrutiny this year, as the war in Ukraine exposes shortfalls in the British military and pushes defence spending up the national agenda.
Western governments have beefed up military budgets following Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and a new period of instability in the Middle East has only added to concerns in Western capitals.
But in January, former defence secretary Ben Wallace described the British military as “hollowed out and underfunded,” after a US general privately told the Ministry of Defence it was no longer a top-level fighting force.
A 60-page report from parliament’s defence committee followed in July, in which MPs argued the UK must “put its house in order” on procurement, highlighting comparisons with a quicker and more efficient French system.
One example cited included the laboured delivery of eight anti-submarine Type 26 frigates. An equivalent Japanese warship was brought into military service at a third of the time.
“Because technology is moving extremely quickly [and] threats are emerging and changing in an unprecedentedly quick way, we’ve seen the benefit of being able to turn around solutions to threats quickly in Ukraine of course, including with surprise technologies, both in space, in drones, in the rest of it,” Bridge told Morning Wire
“We know the UK is looking at how it can be more agile than its procurement process, and we really welcome that.”
Airbus is one of the biggest players in the global arms industry. Its defence and space segment netted €11.3bn (£9.8bn) in revenue in 2022. It is also a part of Eurofighter Typhoon, an industry collaboration with BAE Systems and Leonardo, which manages supply of the Typhoon combat aircraft in Europe.
A Ministry of Defence Spokesperson said: “We are committed to making defence procurement faster, leaner and more agile, ensuring our Armed Forces remain well-equipped and able to keep the country safe while being as efficient as possible.
“Our procurement arm – Defence Equipment & Support – hit 91 per cent of their key milestones in the last year to the costs and time agreed, whilst also delivering more than £6bn of efficiency savings for the taxpayer in recent years.”