The Ministry of Defence has again acknowledged that the Challenger 3 main battle tank programme has been affected by supply chain delays, while arguing that the Defence Investment Plan provides the stability industry needs to work through them, according to a written answer published this week.
Luke Pollard, Minister of State for Defence Readiness and Industry, was responding to Catherine McKinnell, the Labour MP for Newcastle upon Tyne North, who had asked how the plan will support the reduction of supply chain delays in the defence sector and specifically on the Challenger programme.
Mr Pollard said: “As I have previously acknowledged, the Challenger 3 Main Battle Tank has been impacted by some supply chain delays. However, the announcement of the DIP, including its commitment to completing Challenger 3, provides stability and certainty to industry working on the programme and will enable industry to sustain and invest in the people, skills, and materials needed to deliver the programme.”
On the broader question, he said the plan “will help reduce supply chain delays by providing industry with greater certainty over future demand, enabling investment in skills, capacity and infrastructure”, and that it is supported by wider procurement reforms and supply chain resilience initiatives intended to improve forecasting, strengthen critical industrial capabilities and allow risks to be identified before they affect delivery.
The department’s position is that suppliers cannot invest in capacity without visibility of future orders, and that publishing spending plans over a four-year period allows companies weighing whether to hire, tool up or expand a facility to see the demand that would justify doing so.
Challenger 3 involves rebuilding 148 Challenger 2 hulls with a new turret carrying a 120mm smoothbore gun, replacing the rifled weapon that made British ammunition supply unique among NATO tank fleets. The work is being carried out by Rheinmetall BAE Systems Land, the joint venture formed in 2019, at Telford in Shropshire, under a contract placed in 2021.
More blah blah blah from this horrific and incompetent Labour Government.
Where are these ‘supply chain issues’? Ok it’s a new turret but as it’s been developed then supply chains come with it surely! As for the hull wasn’t the whole idea that the supply chain already existed therefore saving money!