Changing landscape of battle

Changing landscape of battle - urgent solutions needed now, not in the future
Today the focus of attention by the MoD and other defence departments around the world is directed towards shorter term needs often typified by Operational Requirements (ORs) and Urgent Operational Requirements (UORs). The important consequence of this shorter term approach is that it forces decisions to be made quickly and orders to be placed.

Defence procurement, therefore, is heading towards tactical solutions rather than long-term strategic planning. This means using existing ideas, technology and hardware and adapting it for theatre, and so technologies such as commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) products are more important today than ever before. Industry experts predict that there will be increased COTS procurement particularly in the area of electronics. Plug-and-play and open architectures will become a priority and older technologies are likely to become redundant if they cannot be upgraded, resulting in the military adopting a use-and-abandon approach because of the high cost of transportation around the world.

COTS is not just about saving money, but delivering a quick and timely solution for rapid deployment that is also ‘equipment-fit’ and ‘capability-fit’. Therefore, there are good business opportunities for two or more technology vendors further down the supply chain to co-operate and share resources by teaming up to create a tactical advantage and supply these large organisations with the solutions they need.

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