The Politics and DV Engineering working group analyses current political developments in the defence sector. It provides independent facts and interpretation from the technological knowledge and experience of engineers.
The Politics and DV Engineering working group has prepared recommendations for the government's announced review of the Defence Paper. The recommendations were drafted based on publicly available information and defence technology knowledge and experience.
Some time ago, the Minister of Defence announced that she would recalibrate her 2018 Defence Note in 2020 and update it where necessary. In response, our working group considered the developments of recent years and prepared the attached set of recommendations for the recalibration.
Since the publication of the 2018 Defence Paper, the Ministry of Defence has made many good plans to achieve a technologically advanced armed forces. However, the working group sees as a major shortcoming of the 2018 Defence Memorandum that no or insufficiently clear indication has been given of how all these plans will be realised. In practice, many of the ambitious plans have not (yet) actually been implemented or set in motion, even though this is necessary to get out of the deep valley of the past decades.
One important aspect is the dilution of knowledge, which is needed to specify needs, develop technology and capabilities, participate effectively internationally, monitor security and draw up use guidelines and military doctrines. However, there are many more topics of interest for the recalibration. The working group has broadly categorised these into Materiel, Financial, Procurement, Innovation, European cooperation, Sustainability and Personnel. However, there is a great correlation between these topics. They cannot be considered separately.
You can find all the working group's recommendations via this link. If you have any questions about this, the working group will be happy to answer them.
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The Hague, 9 September 2019
More information on the Politics and Defence Technology working group can be found via this link.
Do you have any questions or would you like to receive the working group's comments by email? If so, please contact the working group at E: politiektechniek@kividv.nl
Disclaimer: The facts and opinions given are based on open sources and on the knowledge and experience of working group members.
As part of the professional association KIVI, the working group is independent of political parties, governments and companies.
This is not an official position of KIVI. The association accepts no liability for anything put forward by the working group or its members.
Photo: Jesterhat84 via wikimedia (CC BY-SA 3.0 EN)
