Sunday, September 13, 2009

Cormorant Communications System - Lame Duck in a War Zone

I have been leaving the slating of the Ministry of Defence systemic failures in Procurement to the redoubtable Richard North over at the Defence of the Realm, but this one it appears has slipped his notice. Fortunately The Register picked up on this in its story of the 8th September: Army's £114m battle-comms net not up to Afghan demands with the sub-heading of: Israeli off-the-shelf replacements rushed in and then BBC News published a very similar story on the 10th September: MoD withdraws £114m comms system in its Technology Section.

In non-technical terms, the Cormorant System was designed to replace the various legacy and ad-hoc off the shelf equipment used by the British Joint Task Force Headquarters with a purpose designed integrated system to provide the communications links to the in-theatre sub-commands, certainly a worthy objective.

The £114 Million contract was placed with EADS Wales, part of EADS UK and the system was scheduled to start in service deliveries during 2002. But the project suffered a series of delays and wasn't declared operational until December 2004. Now an MoD project that is only two years late, is actually unusual as often it is much longer.

But a two year delay to ensure that the Cormorant System met the needs of the Joint Services Commands, and that would, with regular updating meet its 20 Year planned service life, would surely be worth it, wouldn't it?

Almost immediately it was introduced, muted criticism (because the Armed Forces aren't allowed any other kind) began and in even in summary are pretty damning: "cursed with some of the worst procurement decisions, shoddy workmanship, non-existent quality control and so-called support arrangements which verge on criminal neglect ".

As an aside: Cormorant is deployed at the in-theatre command level, it needs to integrate with tactical systems such the Ptarmigan System which was already approaching obsolescence when introduced during the 1980's and by the time it was fully functional in the 1990's was obsolete, but will only start to be replaced by the BAE Systems Falcon in 2010.

In Afghanistan the Cormorant Systems role is to link the British Main Operational Bases, exactly what it was designed to do. BUT it isn't up to it!
So to supplement a system that was specifically designed to avoid the need for ad-hoc off the shelf equipment, back in June the MoD rush ordered off the shelf the Israeli RADWIN 2000 System and it is currently being implemented by Horsebridge Network Systems.What makes this even more ironic is a quote from Major Lee Hawkes:
"RADWIN’s systems meet our requirements, without additional modification or equipment."

From the above it would appear that the RADWIN System will provide added capability to Cormorant, but this does not actually reflect the true state of affairs as it now appears much of the Cormorant Infrastructure in Afghanistan is being withdrawn back to the UK and replaced by the much cheaper RADWIN System.

If the Cormorant saga was an isolated case it would be a disgrace, but from the leaks of the Gray Report (See: Times Online 23rd August and 24th August ), this is just another example of the Ministry of Defence systemic failures in Procurement, However in my opinion, these failings are deeply rooted and go back as far as the early 1960's. in part exacerbated by the ever changing Political view of Defence , which rarely has anything to do with the Nations Defence Requirement, but instead mainly with Party Political expediency and short term Political gain.



Wednesday, September 09, 2009

UK Population Approx 61 Million - Mobile Phone Subs Approx 76 Million.

The planned merger between Orange and T-Mobile would mean the merged entity would have more than 28 Million Subscribers and a Market Share of 37%.

These numbers mean that in round figures there are 76 Million Mobile Phone Subscribers in the United Kingdom.

So there is one Mobile Subscription for every Man, Woman and Child (including babies), with another 15 Million covering those with Multiple subscriptions, Regular visitors to the UK with a UK Subscription, Inactive Accounts, Illegal Immigrants and Criminal Usage.

Hmm..The numbers are interesting but without a proper breakdown, I cannot reach any sensible conclusion, but I am left with a sense of unease.






Monday, September 07, 2009

Michael Yon with British Troops in Helmand

Michael Yon who?
American Citizen and former United States Army Green Beret, turned Author and Reporter. He recently spent approximately a month with British Forces (for whom he has a lot of respect) in Helmand Province and spent his time living and patrolling with the 2nd Rifles (a Unit he had previously spent time with in Iraq). His stay would have been longer, but the Ministry of Defence (bless them) took umbrage at this report Michael filed on the 24th August 2009 entitled: Bad Medicine

However an even more interesting Blog Post was made on the 31st August and although it discusses the Afghan Elections as a future event (and was posted after they were held) is a must read for the realities of the War in Afghanistan: Precision Voting

Michael is moving on, but not back home, instead now trying to get permission to embed with US Forces. In the meantime he has filed a story that was published in the New York Daily News on the 6th September:
New Afghan war: Frontline correspondent says fight has morphed – but we still can't afford to lose
This makes sombre reading (especially from a British prespective), but is an article that it is too important to ignore.

Update: 08th September 2009 Another fascinating article on being with the British Troops in Helmand. Although posted today. the article is based on a patrol just prior to his permission to remain with British Forces was revoked. The title of the Article is Misleading, but it is really worth reading: Eight Years After 9/11