Publications /
Policy Paper

Back
Defence & Security Acquisition – a Guide to a Complex System
Authors
John Louth
Trevor Taylor
August 22, 2017

This paper reports on the vital relationship between government and defence industries, and how the core features necessary for defence and security capabilities can be delivered in the national interest. The paper will examine how a defence acquisition process can be set up so as to enable defence businesses to thrive within and beyond national borders, and to ensure that they support the forward plans of government, the military and security services.

Taking a seven stage approach, this paper will define the whole of the defence acquisition process. It will start by focusing on the importance of defence capability requirements, as framed through a conventional Western taxonomy. It will then address the approvals process by decision makers at Ministry and governmental level, through which verification is obtained that the requirements meet defence policy, are feasible and affordable. The paper will then look at how the approvals process leadings to the start of the procurement stage, and after this how the support needs will be address. Approaching the end, the paper will then address the disposal requirements. Finally, it will study how all these tasks should be executed in an integrated and coherent fashion by the defence community, and the international dimension to many projects involving other partner governments.

In summary, the paper will introduce the reader to acquisition and through-life capability management in a systemic and comprehensive manner, but it should not be taken as an exhaustive map of the field. The topics examined are often contentious and there are many ways that states generate force capabilities; still, this paper offers a sensible and well-tested approach to defence acquisition, formed through Western experience.

RELATED CONTENT

  • Authors
    Abdelkhalek El Bikam
    Afang Ndong Zita
    Kourouma Oumar
    August 25, 2017
    The current economic, political and geo-strategic dynamics, centered on the major regional groups, announce a reconfiguration of the international order in which Africa is called to play an important role through its main continental institution which is the Union African Union (AU). The AU is increasingly emerging as the continent's platform with foreign partners, and continues to face problems of dependence, governance and leadership. Therefore, in a critical and forward-looking a ...
  • Authors
    John Louth
    Trevor Taylor
    August 22, 2017
    This paper reports on the vital relationship between government and defence industries, and how the core features necessary for defence and security capabilities can be delivered in the national interest. The paper will examine how a defence acquisition process can be set up so as to enable defence businesses to thrive within and beyond national borders, and to ensure that they support the forward plans of government, the military and security services. Taking a seven stage approac ...
  • Authors
    August 4, 2017
    La Conférence Annuelle Africaine Sur la Paix et la Sécurité (APSACO), organisée par l’OCP Policy Center, s’est tenue les 10 et 11 juillet à Rabat. Cette première édition portant sur l’autonomie stratégique de l’Union Africaine (UA) avait pour but principal de mener une réflexion sérieuse et constructive sur les différentes options probables et réalistes de la montée en puissance de cette organisation internationale comme acteur autonome, mais interdépendant avec le monde. La Confére ...
  • July 31, 2017
    The African Peace and Security Annual Conference (APSACO), organized by the OCP Policy Center, was held from July 10 – 11, 2017 in Rabat. This first edition, focusing on the African Union’s (AU) strategic autonomy, aimed to facilitate a serious and constructive consideration of the various probable and realistic options for the rise of this international organization as an autonomous entity that is globally interdependent. The conference also aimed at launching a deep African debate ...
  • Authors
    July 7, 2017
    Ce Policy Brief traite de l’articulation entre le développement et la sécurité dans le bassin méditerranéen, ainsi que de l’implication des pays des deux rives, nord et sud, dans un partenariat assurant la sécurité nécessaire à un développement socio-économique conjoint. Les pays du Sahel prennent également part à l’analyse et conditionnent le succès des stratégies sécuritaires au Maghreb et au sein de l’Union Européenne. Le papier revient sur des exemples de pays riches mais frappé ...
  • Authors
    Christopher S. Chivvis
    June 20, 2017
    The United States and Europe share a common interest in addressing the growing terrorist threats from North Africa. The emergence of ISIL as a force in the region — notably in Libya, but also in Egypt and to a lesser degree in Tunisia, Algeria, and Mali — is cause for genuine concern. The ISIL challenge is compounded by the persistence of older terrorist organizations, both local ones such as the region’s various Ansar al Sharias as well as al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), al ...
  • June 14, 2017
    Le débat sur la défense est plus que jamais d’actualité dans un contexte mondial évolutif animé par la reconfiguration continue des équilibres géostratégiques et par le poids des conséquences de la crise économique et financière sur le budget des Etats : les politiques de défense seront-elles adaptées à leurs taches de demain ? Les stratèges des Etatsmajors auront-ils les moyens suffisants pour négocier efficacement le processus d’adaptation ? Outre la modernisation des systèmes d’a ...
  • June 14, 2017
    The debate on defense is more relevant than ever in an evolving global context that is driven by the constant reconfiguration of geostrategic equilibriums and by the importance of the impacts of the economic and financial crisis on States’ budgets leading to pertinent questions such as: will defense policies be adapted to their future tasks? Will the military leaders’ strategists have sufficient means to effectively negotiate the adaptation process? In addition to the modernization ...
  • Authors
    Patrick Brunot
    Pascal Chaigneau
    Jérôme Evrard
    Sonia Le Gouriellec
    Andreï Gratchev
    Michael Lebedev
    Florent Parmentier
    Anne-Sophie Raujol
    George Voloshin
    April 13, 2017
    Cette publication conjointe entre HEC Center for Geopolitics et OCP Policy Center, compile douze Policy Papers qui ont été présentés, discutés et enrichis lors de la deuxième édition des Dialogues Stratégiques, une plateforme d’analyse et de débat stratégique autour des principaux enjeux géopolitiques et sécuritaires internationaux, mais également régionaux revêtant une importance capitale pour les continents européen et africain. Ce deuxième volume des Dialogues Stratégiques est co ...