MoD Welcomes NAO Report on Fast Jets Support

UK Ministry of Defence, The MoD welcomed today's National Audit Office report on the successful transformation of logistic support to Royal Air Force Harrier and Tornado aircraft, which led to savings of more than £1.4 billion, while maintaining aircraft availability on the front line. 
 
In recent years the MoD has significantly changed the way it carries out repair, planned overhaul and upgrade activity for fast jets in order to drive down costs and improve reliability and capability. 
 
Today's report underlines the success of this strategy. Between 2001-02 and 2006-07 the MoD saved £1.3 billion and £109 million on support costs for Tornado and Harrier respectively, whilst maintaining aircraft availability. The NAO report concludes that MoD's transformation of logistics support to fast jets represents “good value for money”. 
 
Minister of State for Defence Equipment and Support, Lord Drayson, said: “Transforming the way we support Harrier and Tornado has reaped significant benefits, not only improving performance but also enabling the Department to save more than £1.4 billion. This is ultimately about resources for the front line. Better and cheaper support for these jets not only maintains availability, but also means we can free up more resources to the front line. 
 
“The changes we have delivered in fast jet support demonstrate the Defence Industrial Strategy in action. I am also pleased to see industry contributing to improving support for these key aircraft, and across other areas of our equipment business. 
 
“Today's National Audit Office Report recognises these achievements and I welcome their endorsement of our programme.”  
 
Background Information: 
1. Changes that helped realise these savings included centralising depth repair, overhaul and upgrade at a single location for each aircraft fleet (RAF Marham for Tornado and RAF Cottesmore for Harrier), introducing more efficient maintenance processes known as 'pulse-lines', employing Lean production techniques to eliminate waste and, extending the number of flying hours for Tornado and Harrier aircraft between scheduled maintenance. 
 
2. New ways of working in partnership with industry have been forged with BAE Systems and Rolls Royce. This includes jointly managed teams of contractor and military personnel at the centralised locations, an approach that is entirely consistent with the Defence Industrial Strategy. 
 
3. Defence Equipment & Support was formed on 1 April 2007, bringing together the work of the former Defence Logistics Organisation and Defence Procurement Agency to provide through life support to operations.