HC Deb 15 February 2000 vol 344 c478W
Mr. Hancock

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on the problems being experienced with the new Bowman Communication System; and what assessment he has made of their impact on the effectiveness and safety of the United Kingdom's armed forces. [109037]

Dr. Moonie

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by my hon. Friend the Member for Liverpool, Walton (Mr. Kilfoyle), the then Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence, on 21 December 1999,Official Report, column 468W, to my hon. Friend the Member for Plymouth, Sutton (Mrs. Gilroy).

Mr. Keetch

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what assessment he has made of the reasons for delay to the original in service date of the BOWMAN digital battlefield communications system; and if he will make a statement. [109965]

Dr. Moonie

[holding answer 14 February 2000]: This is a matter for the Chief Executive of the Defence Procurement Agency. I have asked the Chief Executive to write to the hon. Member.

Letter from John F. Howe to Mr. Paul Keetch, dated 15 February 2000: I am replying to your question to the Secretary of State for Defence about the reasons for delay to the in service date of the BOWMAN communication system. This matter falls within my area of responsibility as Chief of Defence Procurement and Chief Executive of the Defence Procurement Agency. As part of our normal process, we assess the reasons for any programme slippage. Accumulated slippage from BOWMAN's original in service date of December 1995 can be attributed to a combination of technical difficulties, MOD budgetary constraints, the need to reconsider the BOWMAN procurement strategy following changes in industry, a redefinition of the in service date to reflect the completion of field trials and a further redefinition of the programme in order to reduce cost growth and risk. On 21 December 1999, the then US of S, in a Parliamentary answer to Linda Gilroy MP, provided a progress report, which noted the difficulties being experienced by ARCHER Communications Systems Ltd. Subject to continued good progress by ARCHER on their improvement programme, our aim would be to seek approval to proceed later this year following which we would expect to place an implementation (manufacture) contract by the end of the year. Prior to this we cannot set a revised in service date but would expect it to be in late 2003 or early 2004.