The UK Ministry of Defence’s equipment budget is based on a dream world of accounting where they think their reduced cost forecasts will be met.
Released on 12 January, the ten-year equipment budget stretches from 2014-15 to 2023-24 and will see overall cuts of £1.4 billion. According to the National Audit Office’s (NAO) Major Equipment report, the savings made in the budget are the result of reductions in future cost forecasts.
However, the NAO said that these forecasts were ‘over-optimistic’ and ‘could result in overall budgets for procurement and support being significantly understated’.
‘Project teams continue to be over-optimistic