Looks like some serious trial balloon flying from inside the Conservative government:
Ottawa eyes plan to loosen DND’s grip on military procurement
Could this be primarily a consequence of the CF’s F-35 acquisition, er, excesses, compounded by the recent truck debacle? And note this paragraph in the story:
…
There’s keen interest in replicating Ottawa’s 2011 success in selecting winners to build $33-billion worth of combat and non-combat vessels without sparking a regional political backlash of the kind that plagued the Mulroney government in the late 1980s. The decision to pick shipyards in Halifax and British Columbia was largely managed by Public Works, not Defence…
Politics aside, I would maintain this choice of shipyards may not actually lead to such good results in terms of actual shipbuilding. See the latter part of this post, and this one:
As for the F-35, some cautionary words from the incoming USAF chief of staff–anyone in the CF, DND and the government paying attention?
…
Gen. [Mark] Welsh also spoke a cautionary note on the Pentagon’s biggest procurement program, the F-35. “I’m excited about the F-35 because I believe the nation needs it,” he declared, but at the same time, “I am concerned about the program” both because of the funding cuts imposed from without as part of the deficit-reduction package and because of the internal management problems.“We have not been able to build and deliver jets on schedule or at an accurately predicted cost,” Welsh warned. “If we cannot clearly identify what this airplane costs to buy and to fly … we have no idea how many we can afford.” That requires relentless pressure to keep costs down and stable, including pressure on contractor Lockheed Martin, he said, and as Chief, “That would be a daily event for me.”
Somehow I doubt the daily attention of Bernard Valcourt.
Mark Collins is a prolific Ottawa blogger
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July 22nd, 2012 at 3:05 pm
Meanwhile the UK looks to privatize its defence procurement agency–brief excerpts from Sir Humphrey:
” Fifty Shades of Gray? The future of the DE&S…
One announcement that slipped out under the ‘end of term’ radar last week in Parliament was the decision that the DE&S, which handles procurement and support for the MOD is likely to become a Government Owned, Commercially Operated organisation (GOCO).
This decision should not in itself come as a surprise to many. For some time rumours have circulated that the MOD was seeking to divest itself of the DE&S, and put procurement at arms length. This was in part seemingly driven by the review into defence procurement driven by Bernard Gray (the current Chief of Defence Materiel). While it will take some time for the work to be completed, it appears that in future all MOD procurement will be run by the private sector on behalf of the MOD…
…it looks like interesting times ahead – there are many questions that need to be answered, and its not just a case of saying ‘privatise defence procurement and all will be well’. It will be a long term project, that is likely to take over a decade to do properly, and which will have major ramifications for the future shape of UK defence, and the equipment it operates. Done well, and it will retain promote and recruit high calibre staff who can bring projects into service better, faster and more cheaply than before. Done badly, and the implications for UK defence as a whole could be almost too worrying to contemplate.”
http://thinpinstripedline.blogspot.ca/2012/07/fifty-shades-of-gray-future-of-de.html
A former DND Assistant Deputy Minister for procurement, Alan Williams, has advocated a distinct–government–procurement agency for Canada:
“New single defence procurement agency would be more efficient and accountable”
http://www.ipolitics.ca/2012/02/07/alan-williams-new-single-defence-procurement-agency-would-be-more-efficient-and-accountable/
The UK government seems to have concluded that doesn’t work so well either; but it is inconceivable in the Canadian political climate that anyone would seriously propose privatization (that evil word). In any event I’m not sure a distinct Canadian government agency could avoid bowing to pressures from politicians and the CF.
Mr Williams is a prominent critic of the F-35 acquisition:
https://www.google.com/search?q=%22alan+williams%22+f-35&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
Mark Collins
July 23rd, 2012 at 10:17 am
More on the UK from DID, with further links:
“Rapid Fire July 23, 2012: Outsourcing UK Defence Procurement”
http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/intelligence-software-ied-07477/
Mark Collins