UK refocuses on spiral development as key to successful programs

LONDON — The British military’s focus on increasing spiral development use means the Ministry of Defence is changing how it assesses new equipment being introduced into service.

The MoD will drop the use of the terms initial operating capability and full operating capability on spiral development programs. It will instead refer to new equipment as reaching “minimal deployable capability” as it is handed over to the military, procurement minister James Cartlidge told Parliament Feb. 28 in a statement about acquisition reforms.

“In a world where our adversaries are threatening to out-compete us in capability terms, we have no choice but to reform acquisition — or see our military competitiveness diminished,” Cartlidge told Parliament.

The changes to spiral development evaluation is one of five key areas of what the British call the Integrated Procurement Model.

Other areas of procurement marked for change include a greater emphasis on the exportability of equipment being purchased; more integrated requirements for the armed service and the breaking down of organizational stovepipes; earlier engagement with industry on future requirements; and new checks and balances to ensure better decisions at the start of programs.

Cartlidge said the key to the reforms is delivering new equipment more quickly.

In the future, “rather than striving for perfection before delivering to the frontline, capabilities at 60%-80% of their full potential will be provided to the user, allowing early application, and subsequent improvements to reach their full potential,” Cartlidge said. “We will pursue spiral development by default.”

Cartlidge told lawmakers the MoD’s new procurement model is being introduced starting next month, with the primary aim avoiding programs like the Ajax armored vehicle and the Crowsnest airborne early warning radar, which he described as “over-complex, over budget and over time”.

“For contractual reasons, existing programs will continue under their current procurement mode,” he added. On April 8, “we will publish our new spiral development playbook so that extant programs which can adopt spiral features will be empowered to do so.”

In a document supporting the procurement reform announcement, the MoD said by the end of this year it will have assessed the defense equipment portfolio to identify opportunities to apply spiral development to new and already underway programs.

John Louth, an independent defense analyst here, said “good enough, rather than perfect, is smart in terms of obtaining an early capability that can be matured and moved through the technology readiness levels.”

“The caveat though is that with the speed of technological change, you may never achieve a full operating capability,” he added. “That may be a good thing, we may never want to freeze requirements in an old style, full operating capability, but always strive to develop and enhance the equipment as technology matures.”

Andrew Chuter is the United Kingdom correspondent for Defense News.

伦敦——英国军方越来越重视螺旋式发展模式的应用，这意味着国防部正在改变评估新装备投入使用的方式。

英国国防部将在螺旋式发展项目中停止使用“初始作战能力”和“全面作战能力”这两个术语。采购部长詹姆斯·卡特里奇2月28日在议会发表的关于采购改革的声明中表示，新装备交付给军方时，将使用“最低可部署能力”这一术语。

卡特里奇告诉议会：“在一个我们的对手威胁要在能力方面超越我们的世界里，我们别无选择，只能改革采购制度，否则我们的军事竞争力将会下降。”

螺旋式发展评估的变革是英国人所称的“综合采购模式”的五个关键领域之一。

其他需要改进的采购领域包括：更加重视所购设备的出口能力；更加综合地满足军队的需求并打破组织壁垒；更早地与业界就未来需求进行沟通；以及建立新的制衡机制，以确保在项目启动之初做出更好的决策。

卡特里奇表示，改革的关键在于更快地交付新设备。

卡特里奇表示，未来“我们不会像以往那样在交付一线产品前就力求完美，而是会先向用户提供60%-80%的功能，以便他们尽早应用，并在后续改进中充分发挥其潜力。我们将默认采用螺旋式开发模式。”

卡特利奇告诉议员们，国防部的新采购模式将于下个月开始实施，其主要目的是避免像 Ajax 装甲车和 Crowsnest 机载预警雷达这样的项目，他将这些项目描述为“过于复杂、超出预算和超出时间”。

他补充说：“出于合同原因，现有项目将继续沿用目前的采购模式。”4月8日，“我们将发布新的螺旋式开发方案，以便能够采用螺旋式开发模式的现有项目能够更好地利用这一方案。”

在支持采购改革公告的一份文件中，国防部表示，到今年年底，将对国防装备组合进行评估，以确定将螺旋式开发应用于新项目和正在进行的项目的机会。

约翰·卢斯是一位独立的国防分析师，他表示，“与其追求完美，不如追求足够好，这样才能尽早获得一种可以成熟并逐步提升到更高技术成熟度水平的能力，这才是明智之举。”

“但需要注意的是，随着技术变革的速度，你可能永远无法达到完全的作战能力，”他补充道。“这或许是件好事，我们可能永远不想将需求冻结在旧式的完全作战能力上，而是应该随着技术的成熟不断努力开发和改进设备。”

Andrew Chuter 是《防务新闻》的英国记者。