Recommendation 15

Future conflicts may require sudden surges in demand and industrial capacity, which industry may then need support to provide. The MoD told us that the United Kingdom and other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) members have put together a NATO defence production action plan. This was designed to create a clearer signal to all of industry about the demand from across NATO, through which the UK’s contribution was the development of an overall munitions strategy. In doing so, it involved industry in classified discussions to give them a clearer understanding of demand and the issues they are planning to. The MoD told us that it plans to invest around £2.4 billion over the next couple of years to strengthen the supply chain through a combination of orders and improvement of resilience. In the longer term it intends to create an “always-on” demand pattern to create a more robust supply chain.35 The MoD accepted that it might need to pay for the increase in resilience in terms of production capacity and future surge capacity.36 28 Team Leidos is a consortium composed principally of Leidos Europe, Leidos Supply, Kuehne and Nagel and TVS Supply Chain Solutions. 29 Qq 73–74 ; C&AG’s Report para 10 30 Q74 31 Qq 75–77 32 Qq 60, 100–103 ; C&AG’s Report para 3 33 Ministry of Defence, Defence Supply Chain Strategy, 15 November 2022 34 Qq 60, 100, 103 35 Q 103 36 Q 102 14 Improving Defence Inventory Management Medical inventory