MOD outlines £4.7m for National Armaments Director Group

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) has provided new detail on the cost of establishing the National Armaments Director (NAD) Group, confirming £4.7 million has been spent to date and reiterating that no extra costs have been incurred from having the organisation run by an interim head rather than a permanent appointment.

In two written parliamentary questions on 24 September 2025, Conservative MP Mark Francois pressed the department on whether the use of an acting director had driven up costs, and what the total expenditure of the design phase would be.

Responding, Defence Minister Luke Pollard said “this Government is delivering the deepest defence reforms in over 50 years. On 31 March 2025 the National Armaments Director (NAD) Group was stood up – creating a new export to end acquisition system designed to cut waste and fix the broken procurement system this Government inherited.”

The NAD Group, led by interim director Andy Start, was created to overhaul acquisition and armaments management. Pollard noted that Start has carried out “all of the responsibilities the Head of the NAD Group must, regardless of the fact he is an interim appointment,” and confirmed that “the Department has incurred no additional cost as a result of operating the NAD Group under Andy Start.”

The MOD disclosed that by the end of August 2025, £4.2 million in workforce costs had been incurred, drawn from existing departmental resources rather than additional allocations. Of this figure, £3.1 million was spent on enabling workstreams and £1.1 million on organisational change. A further £0.5 million was spent on external assistance in support of the group’s establishment, bringing the total expenditure to £4.7 million.

According to Pollard, “this expenditure was drawn from existing resource within MOD, and is not a net increase for the Department.” The design phase of the NAD Group is scheduled to conclude on 31 March 2026, at which point a final costing will be confirmed.