Defence: Procurement
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority Major Projects Annual Report 2025 to 2026, Tables, New Style of Information Technology Deployed, to what extent a) overly optimistic planning assumptions and b) ongoing resource and funding constraints contributed to the 12 month delay to the Maritime and Land sectors.
Answered by Ministry of Defence
Early programme assumptions proved optimistic, particularly on the time and engineering effort required to develop, build, accredit and deploy OpNET nodes, and on the availability of suitable maritime platform access windows. Maritime delivery has been particularly affected by the need to align installation activity with vessel maintenance periods, operational availability and ship-specific integration constraints.
Affordability pressures, constrained workforce capacity and the absence of a fully confirmed long-term funding position have limited the programme’s ability to accelerate recovery once schedule pressure emerged. However, work is ongoing, particularly in the Maritime environment, to seek to recover the delay.
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