02 July 1999
Of the 25 projects, 16 are expected to be completed over-budget and only two are likely to meet their original deadlines. The projects involved include the Eurofighter (£1.5bn over budget), the Merlin MK1 Maritime Helicopter (£815m over budget) and the Air-Launched Anti-Armour Weapon (ten years late).
The analysis is undertaken each year by the NAO, with the 25 largest defence equipment projects included. Seven projects were evaluated for the first time in this year's reports, but the NAO stressed that there was no evidence that newer projects are less susceptible to cost and time overruns.
A spokesman for the MoD said that the report covered the period until March 1998 and that subsequently the situation had improved. 'In July 1998, we introduced our Smart Procurement Initiative to address some of these issues. This should lead to a gradual improvement in the situation,' he said.
The Smart initiative involves the introduction of integrated project teams, clearly defined customer-supplier relationships and putting more resources into early project phases.
PFjul1999
