Modern warfare ‘accelerating away’ from Ministry of Defence due to tech upgrade delays, say MPs

Modern warfare is “accelerating away” from the Ministry of Defence (MoD) due to delays in technology upgrades, MPs have claimed.

A new report from the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said the department had been “struggling for years” to update systems, such as those needed by UK warships and satellites, meaning some projects were in danger “of being obsolescent on delivery”.

Chair of the committee, Labour MP Dame Meg Hillier, said the MoD was “frankly not up to the task it faces”, and called for a “significant cultural change” to bring the systems up to date and to be prepared for modern battles ahead.

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The report comes days after Sky News revealed a senior US general had privately told Defence Secretary Ben Wallace the British Army was no longer regarded as a top-level fighting force.

Sources told security and defence editor Deborah Haynes that the decline in war-fighting capability – following decades of cuts to save money – needed to be reversed faster than planned in the wake of the war in Ukraine.

Mr Wallace told Sky News that the army had “fallen behind its peer group” and “needs investment”, but he said the British government was already investing £34bn into an equipment plan between now and 2033.

According to PAC’s report, there were more than 2,000 systems and applications for 200,000 users that the MoD had found difficulty in replacing, from administrative and back-office IT to military platforms, such as ships and satellites.

And despite the fast roll-out of new technology now being “at the very heart of the defence of the realm – with the urgency of this challenge demonstrated by the current conflict in Ukraine”, the Infrastructure and Projects Authority found three projects had significant issues and two were “unachievable”.

The MPs said the MoD needed to make a “down payment” on a new way of operating in its digital action plan, expected to be published in April 2023, and make sure its delivery was “realistic and costed”.

Dame Meg said: “The scale and nature of the challenge of modern warfare is accelerating away from the ministry, while it’s bogged down in critical projects that are years delayed and at risk of being obsolescent on delivery.

“There is no world in which that is an acceptable situation at the heart of our national defence.”

In response, the MoD said it has made “significant progress” in delivering IT projects, and said recent work meant “only one of the six major digital programmes is rated red”.

The department’s spokesperson added: “Defence Digital’s improvement programme is a priority for the department, which is why we’re investing over £4bn annually.

“Maximising digital capabilities and data is fundamental to success in military operations and the committee recognises our strategy has the right priorities for achieving this.”