“Poor planning, delays, cost over-runs and changes to project specifications have been the MoD’s stock-in-trade for many years, combined with weakness in financial management and a culture of over-optimism about the ability to meet financial commitments.  At the heart of the problem is that senior officials do not challenge unaffordable decisions about equipment procurement.

“One ray of hope is that at last the MoD has a financially qualified finance director, who now has a big job to do in sorting out the Ministry, though it hasn’t helped that hitherto he has not been given the powers he needs to do his job properly.  The MoD needs to get its house in order and develop a realistic and affordable financial strategy.  Anything else is castles in the air”.