Recommendation 28

HM Government Acknowledged

The Department welcomes and agrees with the Committee’s recommendation and recognises that successful procurement depends upon a positive and collaborative relationship with industry. The Army’s Armoured Fighting Vehicle modernisation programme, through our commitment to Ajax, Boxer and Challenger 3, has catalysed investment in the UK’s onshore Armoured Fighting Vehicle industrial capability, which will develop and sustain a workforce skilled in high end engineering and software development. The Land Industrial Strategy, announced as part of the Defence and Security Industrial Strategy, will build on this by developing a greater partnership approach with industry and provide a more sustainable pipeline of work, thus driving new growth and investment, the development of new technologies and increasing the global competitiveness of UK products. On the back of Army modernisation, and the £24 billion investment laid out in the Integrated Review, there is also a significant opportunity to grow land exports. The UK addressable market is sizeable and the department recognises the need to provide government impetus to UK land system exports. This is a key theme in Defence and Security Industrial Strategy and the Land Industrial Strategy work. As such, a Land Capability Campaigns Office has been established under UK Defence and Security Exports leadership to help co-ordinate export campaigns across government and industry at a senior level – as part of a wider Team UK approach. The prosperity benefits arising from increased investment in UK intellectual property, product development, skills, facilities and exports, will support this Government’s aims to boost industrial productivity, ‘level-up’ the UK, promote trade and lower the UK’s carbon footprint.