Recommendation 8

The Department told us that it intended to use the Plan’s increased budget to fund both new capabilities and existing programmes. Significantly the Plan now includes £8.65 billion budget for the Future Combat Air System (FCAS) programme. This is a step change as previous Plans did not include money to develop the programme beyond initial spending on innovation and technology.12 However, the Department told us that the project is at an early stage and the concept phase will take several years. The next outline business case is not due until 2024.13 No decision will be made on a concept until some time after that.14 The Permanent Secretary told us that refining the costs for FCAS will be a priority in the next Spending Review.15