§ Mr. SoamesTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence what shortcomings were identified in the Oscar strategic communications system procured for use during Operation TELIC; and how much was spent on the system. [147276]
§ Mr. IngramThe Operations and Strategic Communications Architecture (OSCA) system was procured at short notice to enhance our strategic communications capability. The lack of scope to engineer the solution full and the requirement to integrate OSCA into the existing UK military communications infrastructure caused some difficulties. These difficulties did not significantly affect the operational outcome.
Some £13 million was spent on acquiring the hardware and costs of some £20 million have been incurred in running the system up to December 2003.