Honouring military-grade project management this Armed Forces Week

Projects, programmes and portfolios are essential to the armed forces. As part of Armed Forces Week (June 23-29), Association for Project Management is shining a spotlight on some of the most iconic projects overseen by Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S), an arm’s length body of APM Corporate Partner the Ministry of Defence.

DE&S negotiates and manage defence contracts on behalf of the UK armed forces, ensuring they have the right equipment and support to carry out their duties. Over the years, DE&S has played an important role in delivering some of the most well-known and globally significant defence projects of recent times.

Eurofighter Typhoon

The Typhoon – also known as Eurofighter Typhoon – is a twin-engine, multi-role combat aircraft and forms the backbone of the UK’s Combat Air Capability. It is the result of a multinational partnership between the UK, Spain, Italy, and Germany.

Typhoon was delivered across three tranches, with each tranche representing iterative and substantive capability improvements over the last. The economic and industrial benefits include 100,000 high wage and high skilled jobs over the lifespan of Typhoon, independence from the USA and security of supply.

Apache attack helicopter

The Apache Attack Helicopter, flown by the Army Air Corps, is an aerial weapons platform designed to accomplish a variety of missions in day, night and adverse weather, from desert heart to arctic cold.

The DE&S Helicopters Project Team supports the British Army's existing Apache fleet of 50 AH-64D helicopters and is overseeing the upgrade to the AH-64E variant. The AH-64E flies faster, has a greater lift capability and greater range.

Queen Elizabeth aircraft carriers

The Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carrier programme comprises two aircraft carriers: HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales. These carriers provide the UK with a mobile, versatile, and powerful platform for deploying air power wherever it is needed around the world.

As in-service vessels, the availability of the Queen Elizabeth Class is managed through several contracts and arrangements which support the ships and the critical components which allow them to operate. Support delivery for Royal Navy and Royal Fleet Auxiliary ships is tailored to specific platform requirements and often managed through larger frameworks, such as the £5.2bn Future Maritime Support Programme, which enables work to be carried out at shipyards across the UK and supports thousands of jobs at multiple companies. 

What does the future hold?

With technology advancing faster than ever, it is imperative for the UK’s Armed Forces to be at the forefront of innovation in order to maintain operational advantage. The Future Capability Innovation (FCI) team is one of the key drivers behind innovation exploitation at DE&S.

FCI’s team of experts are focused on understanding how the boundaries of existing technology can be stretched to best serve military requirements.

Areas of focus for FCI include robotics and autonomous systems, artificial intelligence and advanced manufacturing.

You can read more about Future Capability Innovation here.

 

‘Central to successful delivery’

DE&S’s Project Delivery Profession Lead, Steve Cornell, told APM about the value of project management in defence.

He said: “As an ex-soldier, I know how important having effective equipment is. Defence spends around £10bn per year on equipment and support, and our project professionals are at the heart of all our multi-disciplinary teams. In addition, project methodology is central to the successful delivery of equipment and then sustaining it through its life. 

“Our project professionals help our Service Personnel create a requirement and ultimately put it into the hands of the armed forces with the support of industry. Once in their hands, our projects maintain and upgrade that equipment, all the way to be disposed of. That connection to the armed forces, and that sense of purpose, creates a working atmosphere that can be busy, challenging but very rewarding.

“What makes DE&S projects unique is the variety: variety of equipment from torpedoes to telecommunications, variety of geography as it is used around the world, variety of the people in uniform we support, and variety in that the equipment is often in live use on operations. It’s a unique challenge and one our project professionals thrive on.”

 

More support for the armed forces

APM is a signatory of the Armed Forces Covenant, a voluntary pledge which demonstrates an organisation’s commitment to supporting the Armed Forces community, and recognising the value of serving and ex-serving personnel and their families.

If you are a project or programme practitioner with professional interest or connection to the armed forces, you may be interested to follow the APM Defence Sector Interest Network.