§ Lord Astor of Heverasked Her Majesty's Government:
What is the planned in-service date of the future rapid effects system. [HL4888]
§ Lord BachThe future rapid effects system (FRES) is now in its initial assessment phase. A contract for the Systems House role for the FRES programme has been awarded to Atkins who, under the strategic direction of the Ministry of Defence (MOD), will be leading a number of key activities designed to inform MOD's major programme decisions.
Part of this assessment phase work will be to identify and reduce risk in the programme to enable us to define an appropriate in-service date (ISD) in both capability and programme terms for endorsement at Main Gate. The ISD will not be formally endorsed until then, but our initial planning assumption is to introduce the early variants of FRES around the end of the decade, with a phased approach to achieving full operational capability.