Military Support Vehicle (Hansard, 10 June 2004)

§ Richard Burden
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence when he expects to announce his decision on the preferred bidder for the military support vehicle contract. [177440]

§ Mr. Ingram
The preferred bidder for the support vehicle project will be announced as soon as possible.

§ Richard Burden
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what assessment he has made of the potential for compatibility of equipment and co-operation between UK forces and US allies in the field when considering the supply of future strategic and tactical military support vehicles. [177460]

§ Mr. Ingram
Interoperability between our armed forces and those of our NATO allies has been considered as part of the evaluation of bidders' proposals for the support vehicle project.

§ Richard Burden
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what investigations he has undertaken in considering his decision on preferred bidder status for the UK military support vehicle contract into the performance of medium tactical vehicles already in use with the US Army; and which company's products achieved the highest level of in-service operational readiness during Operation Iraqi Freedom. [177461]

§ Mr. Ingram
As part of the competition for the support vehicle project, bidders had the opportunity to state their previous experience of supplying wheeled military vehicles to other Governments and to provide evidence of the performance of such vehicles. This material has informed the evaluation process.
We are aware that vehicles manufactured by Oshkosh and Stewart and Stevenson, two of the four bidders for the support vehicle contract, were used by the US Army and Marine Corps in Operation Iraqi Freedom. However, none of the vehicles used were the variants offered by those companies and an analysis of the type suggested would be inappropriate in the context of the current competition.

§ Richard Burden
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what assessment he has made of the importance of supplier experience and track record in his consideration of preferred bidder status for the military support vehicle contract. [177464]

§ Mr. Ingram
Consideration of these matters has informed the evaluation of bidders' proposals for the support vehicle project.