The "Politics and Defence & Security Engineering" working group of the Royal Institute of Engineers (KIVI) analyses current political developments in the defence sector. It provides facts and interpretation from the technological knowledge and experience of engineers.
The working group has the following comments and questions on the Defence Budget 2017. The questions concern technological or related aspects only.
Page 9. Equipment investment. It is encouraging to note that investing in equipment replacement and renewal is Defence's priority 2, with increasing knowledge and the innovative capability of the armed forces being the first sub-priority. It is unfortunate that despite this, as stated on page 7, the investment requirement over the next 15 years exceeds the available budget.
Page 11. Mine action capability. This page indicates that the study to prepare for the replacement of maritime mine-fighting capabilities has been delayed. However, the estimate for the replacement plan does not (no longer) appear in the long-term budget.From a technical perspective, it therefore seems desirable to conduct a lifetime study of the current maritime mine action capability to determine when the current assets can no longer be deployed in a national or allied context.
Page 14. Financial sustainability. This policy focuses solely on improving understanding and cost control. However, in this time of budgetary scarcity, it is also important to explore how limited resources can be used more effectively. In particular, to enable technological innovation and replacement of obsolete equipment.
Page 17. Cyber. The armed forces will be deployable for Cyber operations, both defensive and offensive, from 2017. Which networks can be defended with this defensive capability? Exclusively its own infrastructure or also vital Dutch and allied infrastructure? After all, defence is there to defend the country and not just itself.
Page 49. Investment ratio. The Dutch and now also European target is to keep the investment ratio at 20% of the defence budget on average. This has not been achieved for many years. This page states that the 20% target can (only) be achieved in 2020. Has the minister planned to compensate for the investment backlog in subsequent years and let the investment ratio rise to (well) above 20%? If not, the backlog in when replacing obsolete equipment will remain.
Page 60. Energy measures for infrastructure. 8.8 M€ is allocated annually for energy-saving measures. Following the Operational Energy Strategy (OES), the Paris climate agreement and related policies, efforts in this area should increase in the coming years. It is desirable to investigate whether Defence can still participate with EDA's GO-GREEN programme or develop a similar initiative itself, which would significantly reduce or even turn negative the expenditure on energy and energy savings for buildings and sites.
Page 64. Contributions and contract research. Is the observation from this text and the accompanying figures correct that and €5M is contributed to major facilities and only €95k is available for acute, unforeseen knowledge support? That would be very little.
Page 69. Utility contracts by CDC. See comment on page 60 on energy-saving measures. In this time of budgetary tightness, significant savings could be made on utility contracts if Defence were to participate in EDA's GO-GREEN project or take a similar initiative itself.
Page 103. Long-term budget Submarines. It is disappointing that submarine replacement is budgeted at €2.4bn. For that amount, according to current understanding, four submarines cannot be built as envisaged in the Future Vision Submarine Service and the DMP-A replacement submarines. In particular, there is no room for an operational platform necessary for innovation until 2070 (20% of the total budget = about €1 Mrd). In a three-boat variant, the effort for innovation remains about the same: even three advanced boats are difficult to realise with this budget.
Page 103. Long-term budget M-frigates. The same applies to their replacement. With an investment budget of around 730 M€, the necessary room for innovation for a very long-lived ship class is completely insufficient.
Page 121. Private investment fund. On 26 March 2015, the minister undertook to explore the possibilities for budget relief using a private investment fund based on a concept described in the Military Spectator. In response to questions before the WO on 2 November 2015, it was announced that the possibility of launching some pilot projects would be explored. What is the state of play after more than a year and a half?
