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 the following questions and comments on the DMP-B replacement Walrus-class submarines, published by the Secretary of State for Defence on 13 December 2019. The comments have been prepared based on publicly available information and defence technology knowledge and experience.
The working group believes that the DMP-B gives the firm impression that the candidate suppliers will actually determine what is operationally/technically possible.
In a dialogue, candidate suppliers are allowed to indicate what they can - or want to - deliver. From the resulting three packages, a choice must be made. Even if some (sub)systems of another package are better. In order to avoid precisely this limitation, ship owners (including civil shipowners of large cruise ships, ferries and bulk carriers) are always involved in the design of large ships to a very high degree of detail. After all, everything has to be right! For a highly complex weapon system like a submarine, however, the current approach of tendering through "competitive dialogue" seems to lead to a technically suboptimal product.
It also leads to a "race-to-the-bottom". In such a waste race, huge interests are at stake for suppliers. Sometimes vital to their business. The temptation is therefore great to meet (almost) all requirements set. The working group's experience in similar projects abroad shows that in such a situation, industries set the price extremely or unrealistically low and/or make other far-reaching promises to be awarded the contract. This almost always leads to unmanageable risks in terms of product, time and money in execution.
The working group is therefore of the opinion that, from a technical point of view and experience in the construction of large and unique capital assets, the chosen route is not the right route to the premium product required by the Royal Navy.
You can download the full commentary at this link.
In it, the working group explains the position and has formulated questions and some alternatives.
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The Hague, 6 January 2020
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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: Media Centre Defence
