The Ministry of Defence has cancelled a planned contract for artillery and armoured vehicle weapon system components, according to an updated procurement notice.
The requirement, which had been intended to cover the supply of military vehicle spares over a seven-year period, was expected to be awarded to BAE Systems Global Combat Systems International Ltd under a single-source arrangement. The contract had been valued at up to GBP 10.4 million.
However, an addendum to the notice confirms that the procurement has now been abandoned following a review. “Having reviewed the procurement, a decision has been made to cancel this activity against this requirement,” the update states, adding that the notice is issued for transparency and is not a request for expressions of interest.
The original requirement was advertised in October 2024 via the Defence Sourcing Portal and Find a Tender service, with Babcock Land Defence Limited acting as agent on behalf of the MOD. The procurement fell under the Defence and Security Public Contracts Regulations and had been justified as a single-source award on technical grounds.
According to the earlier notice, BAE Systems GCS International was considered the only supplier with the necessary specialist expertise, knowledge and experience to manufacture, test and supply the required components.
Despite that rationale, the MOD has now opted not to proceed with the contract in its current form. No replacement procurement approach or revised timeline has been outlined.
Sounds like business as usual; it’s not as if we aren’t at war on two fronts, is it?
The government is raking in billions. Where on earth is it spending it?
NHS
Basic state pension
Debt servicing cost
Disability benefits.
Migrant Hotels
Foreign aid
Green initiatives
Payments to France to stop those boat crossings that they don’t seem to be able to stop (£700 million plus by the way)
You know, all those popular things that people would rather be spent on the military instead 🙂
Agree with Clunker, I’m fed up of people picking on the disabled and being too scared to mention migrants. If you think migration isn’t a far bigger problem than we already know, you simply don’t live in an area with a lot of migrants. The scale of the immigration system is absolutely staggering, and no-one is allowed to report it.
Anything but defence!
About 60% of the world’s state benefits are spent in Europe. That’s why migrants come here. The problem is that Europe’s economy (including the UK) is about 17% of the global economy and shrinking fast. The question is, how do we reduce that financial burden (to spend more of defence, industrial competitiveness, cheap energy, etc) without causing social instability? No one has an answer, that’s why all the main political parties basically have the same policies and nothing changes.
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The question is really two fold. Decreasing state spending and stopping illegal immigrants from absorbing state revenues without producing concomitant revenue has to be tied to growing the economy. You can reduce spending and remove people from the dole but that will only be successful if you can provide them with an alternative means of support. Unfortunately, all four main British political parties are tied to state socialism and will not adopt economic policies to grow the economy. The UK is in a death spiral.
Paying off the credit card. Making sure we don’t get a visit from the baliffs.
So will end up canabilising existing platforms for spare parts. Usual MoD story
Step in Rhienmettal then to support Boxer & CR3 I suppose 🤔
These maintenance and support contracts are one of the reasons UK and especially US military spending is becoming unsustainably expensive. The forces have lost the ability to operate and repair their equipment and rely on an ever growing army of civilian contractors which become ever more expensive.
The USA is even worse and congress won’t stop it because the piggy’s have to be fed and that MIC gravey is the sweetest of them all.
This one was for spare parts thought. And BAE are the manufacturer. It seems a bit of an odd one to cancel
Unless there is a very good reason for this the action seems to be questionable at least…
As I have said before, the government has no intention of spending money on Defence, let the Americans defend us, and once they stop, then let Europe defend us and the final line..appeasement 2.0 ..at least that’s how I see it
No need for weapons, we just have to say to Putin that to attack/ invade Britain is illegal and he will stop immediately, as he is a law abiding person.
So we have saved £10 million by not repairing existing equipment. To be fair though, we do have half a dozen tanks, a few artillery pieces we don’t want to carry on with, a cavalry mount that makes you sick and a load of clapped out warriors. What a success story to tell. 🫣🙃
April Fools Day news: “UK builds this, UK has that”
Actual news: “UK cancels this, UK declines that”
The money all goes on immigrants and benefits and MPs a pay rise
5.56mm is the answer, liberally sprinkled by kind hearted patriots who wish our country to stay ours. If you have a toilet to clean, first you have to remove all the shit. I’m prepared to do that And I can gather many like minded folk to help in that task, all of whom are not too squeamish to undertake the task, don’t wait too long to call. King and Country, the government must be removed and replaced with a better system
But won’t cancel AJAX.
More time, effort and money wasted by the MoD
For something you expect to be replaced in a couple of years, this is not a bad strategy. Perhaps where the tech is advancing so fast it’ll be obsolete in six months, like drone tech is right now. MOD can pay tenfold for contracts with maintenance and spares. The two Peregrines they bought to operate on HMS Lancaster cost about £22m for two years rental (including a £2m integration contract with BAE), with options to exend. Fully serviced, spares, run by contractors, skills transfered to the Navy. However, the underlying hardware and software would have cost a tiny fraction of that. Just buying 5 systems and cannabalising from broken parts might have been the smarter, cheaper play. The two years are up. We got about a year’s operation out of them, at most. We started testing late through not getting our act together, retired the platform before the end, and (apparently at least) in typical MOD fashion made no systematic decisions on what to do with the Perigrine rentals during 2025 when it was obvious that Lancaster was going to be withdrawn, and we are still planning what to do with them (probably put them on an OPV next, but possibly on Lyme Bay if things go badly in Iran). Are we paying Thales/Schiebel for the maintenance and operation support during 2026? Probably, yes. In February this year, Schiebel announced that they and Thales got another contract of undisclosed value and created Schiebel UK, an entity to service the contract in the longer term. When we have our ducks in a row and are ready to widely roll out use, that’s when we need a package. Are we there yet? Debateable.
In this article we read the opposite situation. With stuff that isn’t short time limited. Where we expect the same systems to be in use for decades, perhaps with a handful of hardware upgrades over decades, like artillery or armoured vehicles. That’s where you shouldn’t use cannibalisation. Where you need the spares package, where you want the whole thing to be as off-the-shelf upgradable as you can get them, and you need it all tied up with a bow on. Whether that’s internally run by military engineers or externally through contractors — a different debate. You don’t want to be cannibalising as that’s going to run down the numbers too quickly (relative to service life) and you didn’t overbuy the provision to begin with.
Well, if you don’t have any armoured vehicles, you don’t need any spares do you. All seems very logical.