25 Jun 17. MoD blasts Lockheed over Warrior tank delay. The boss of US defence giant Lockheed Martin has been given a dressing down by the MoD over spiralling costs and delays on a £1bn contract to upgrade Britain’s tanks.
Lockheed was hired almost six years ago to overhaul and fit new gun turrets to Britain’s ageing fleet of Warriors, which have served in the Gulf, Bosnia and Iraq.
However, the American company is understood to be struggling with costs and complexity over the overhaul.
Lockheed has not yet completed an initial contract to upgrade 12 demonstration tanks, significantly delaying the award of a follow-on deal to fit out the fleet of more than 600 vehicles.
Tony Douglas, the chief executive of Defence Equipment and Support, the MoD’s weapons-buying arm, confronted Lockheed boss Marillyn Hewson at last week’s Paris air show over the problems.
The talks come amid a cash crunch at the MoD, as ministers quietly kick off a 60-day spending review. The defence budget has come under increasing pressure since last year’s Brexit vote, with the 14% plunge in sterling raising the cost of overseas kit, from Lockheed’s F-35 stealth jets to Boeing’s Apache helicopters. The cash squeeze is likely to see contracts delayed and cut.
Whitehall’s spending watchdog, the National Audit Office, has said that the affordability of the MoD’s equipment plan is “at greater risk than at any time since its inception”. It said higher costs and extra gear would eat up its entire £10.7bn contingency pot.
Sources said the MoD had triggered a study into alternatives to Lockheed’s Warrior deal — raising the prospect of it being scrapped or opened up to rival bidders, or for the number of tanks to be cut. British defence giant BAE Systems lost out to Lockheed in 2011 on the upgrade contract.
Francis Tusa, editor of Defence Analysis, said: “If Lockheed Martin walks away from the Warrior, its reputation in the UK will be significantly dented.”
The army wants to upgrade its 643 Warrior tanks, built by GKN in the late 1980s, to keep them fighting into the 2040s. The overhauled tanks had been due to enter service in 2018, but that date has been pushed back significantly.
The crisis raises concerns over the army’s £3.5bn order for 589 new smaller Ajax tanks. Lockheed is also building their turrets while American rival General Dynamics makes their hulls.
The MoD said “it would not be appropriate to comment . . . on commercial discussions”. Lockheed declined to comment. (Source: The Sunday Times)
BATTLESPACE Comment: Upgrading old armoured vehicles is always a thankless atsk as problems unfold as the vehicles are stripped down and build standards vary from vehicle to vehicle. BAE Systems was reluctant to low bid to win this Programme despite being Design Authority given its Liquidated Damages paid over let delivery of the Terrier vehicle. Two problems have faced Lockheed over warrior, one was the number of vehicles, 36, affected by the addition of steel Bar Armour. If you weld steel to aluminum you get cracks, which is what has occurred with these vehicles. Secondly the original turret, a widened version of the existing Warrior turret, redesigned to accommodate the CT40 canon was too heavy and had to be replaced with a design reminiscent of the BAE Systems MTIP 2 turret which was not selected. Weight has always been an issue with the Warrior Upgrade Programme and is still belied to be a challenge to Lockheed. The CT40 canon, which is GFE, is progressing, although the Airburst Rounds, crucial to Warrior is still not qualified and there are still dust egress problems when firing. Numbers are also decreasing to around 420 which will of course give less opportunity to amortize the cost. Sources at Paris said that Jane’s had been tasked to look at alternatives with CV90 from BAE Systems being mentioned. If no compromise is reached between Lockheed and DE&S, with Tony Douglas keen to prove his ‘hardman’ image (at a time when some see him as being bypass