Brit military scolded for being too selfish with sexy high-end tech

MoDD

Ministry of Donkeys & Dinosaurs

Always the same

The MOD (and DOD) want the latest specification products (for computing think more performant than the current high-end gaming computers, but with low power consumption, a -45 to +85C temperature range without fans and able to survive the shaking in a helicopter).

They want all of this in a mature product they can buy off the shelf NOW.

They won't buy any real numbers for 5+ years and will want you to supply it for 20+ years. (Sometimes only 20 boards over that time.)

And in the real world Intel change chips yearly and only supply the old ones for a couple of years (or 7 for a few specially selected variants). They only want to talk with manufacturers buying 10,000+ parts, so it's always reverse-engineering to find stuff out. And you have to keep enough inventory to support the 20+ years life-cycle.

It's all very hard and costly, and yet the "MOD experts" and hacks complain that things cost more than on the High Street! It's no wonder that very few people will deal with them!

In a report published on Tuesday, RUSI, the government's defence and foreign policy thinktank, criticised the MoD's current approach to adopting new ideas and technologies, branding its IP-hogging activities "a real disincentive" for private sector thinkers.

Incentive is simply a matter of cash. If it's wanted badly enough, pay enough to own it.

Or better still have a research department that is funded well enough to come up with the ideas and designs in the first place, and then market them publicly too. Now where have we seen that before? Oh yes, the UK! Well, sort of. For example, LCDs were a UK MoD development, they collected royalties for decades...

To a large extent it's about sovereignty, or at least sovereign control. It's no good trying to go to war if some key supplier decides you're not going to use their tech to do so, or decides to change direction and drops the line altogether. There were quite extensive arguments about this with F35...

COTS and security blankets

I always thought the idea of COTS (commerical off the shelf) software in a military environment was a bad idea.

Instead of pleading with Microsoft - replace them.

Low tech?

Sometimes low tech can be rather more effective than high-tech, particularly if the low-tech is actually in stock and the high-tech will be ready in about 25 years.

I remember the US having problems in Vietnam with B52s being shot down, despite all sorts of clever anti missile technology. The Vietcong simply fired insane numbers of dumb missiles and shells into the path of the bombers - some were bound to hit.

And given the complexity of technology, has anyone thought of building a squadron or two of Gladiators for our lovely new white elephants? Probably so slow and odd that the smart tech on the target wouldn't recognise them as a threat!

Stagnant salaries

I moved out of a defence company many years ago because everybody's salary had received no big increase for years. That was the result of MOD procurement.

What I saw in my career was the government destroying the scientific civil service: partly by cuts, but also by turning them into "managers".

I don't see things changing until the government is in a 1940 situation, with a realistic probability of defeat by a determined enemy. They were then so petrified they actually listened to the scientists and engineers, though in some cases Churchill had to order the offending bureaucrat or general to do that.

Meanwhile I enjoy my retirement - until some conqueror triumphs.

"Who uses drawing boards in the modern era?"

Hipsters.

The US are just as bad contracts wise, its just they build enough to keep more players in the game.

The UK's status as a global power is largley now un-deserved and a relic of former glories, it all started with the Washington naval treat, that meant the RN could no longer maintain its 3 fleets (Home Mediterranean, and the Far East) so it cold no longer project the force required to maintain its colonies.

And as it lost the colonies, it had less and less to maintain power for, and now we are a nation of clerks sitting on a rocky island somewhere off europe with two aircraft carriers and no aircraft