Understanding the Complexity of Through Life Capability Management (tlcm)

How does the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) ensure that it continually delivers new military capability that actually meets the current and future requirements of our front line forces, in a security environment where they are facing increasingly unpredictable asymmetric threats?

The answer, until very recently at least, is not all that well. A point illustrated by the fact that the MoD is currently spending approximately £1.4bn on over 230 Urgent Operational Requirements (UORs), in addition to its planned projects. However, the Defence Acquisition Change Programme (DACP) is aiming to change this and ensure that UK armed forces are equipped with the most effective military capability for now and the next 30 years.

The DACP was born out of the UK MoD’s 2005 Defence Industrial Strategy (DIS) and the recommendations of the subsequent Enabling Acquisition Change (EAC) report (2006). These documents outlined the cold reality that in order to effectively deliver UK military capability for the foreseeable future, both the UK MoD and the UK defence industrial complex needed to evolve significantly. Intrinsic to them both was the concept of Through Life Capability Management (TLCM), which has the following meanings:

1) An approach to the acquisition and in-service management of military capability in which every aspect of new and existing military capability is planned and managed coherently … from cradle to grave.”

2) Assessing, prioritising and budgeting for capability; not just by Main Building, but by Front Line Command.

3) Evaluating capability; not just in the terms of a single piece of equipment, but as ‘systems of systems’, across all nine Defence Lines of Development (DLoDs): Training; Equipment; Personnel; Information; Concepts and Doctrine; Organisation; Infrastructure; Logistics and Interoperability.

For the first time, the procurement of UK military capability will be evaluated with a broader look across the acquisition lifecycle; not just by a front end process of acquiring kit and making sure it was delivered to the front line in time. The ability, therefore, to capture, visualise and understand the multiple interdependencies of the required systems of systems capability (as defined by priorities set by each separate DLoD), is a hugely complex yet valuable task.

Even more complex, but absolutely essential, is the definition of a common currency, by which the investment priorities of the DLoDs can be assessed by the UK MoD acquisition community and industrial complex charged with delivering the capability. This common currency will enable these stakeholders to make informed procurement decisions, reduce programme risk and deliver true Through Life Capability.

A company providing some of the leading thoughts on how to address this central complexity implicit in Through Life Capability Management, is the specialist professional services company, VEGA Group PLC. The foundation of a common currency will provide the UK MoD acquisition community with the ability to compare capability choices assessed by a differing DLoD evaluation criterion. This will be against hard numeric values to support decisions at the initiation of a new Equipment Programme within a specific capability area, as well as the ability to support change decisions within an extant Equipment Programme.

The ability to re-use information from an architectural repository such as MODAR, and define new requirements using the same (MODAF-based) Architectural Frameworks, takes much of the donkey-work out for the UK MoD capability teams developing User Requirement Documents and Supplier Requirement Documents. The re-use of the same information when running choice scenarios will ensure that the desk officers are deriving benefit from a decision support technology that truly embraces interdependency complexity without the level of effort that dilutes their ability to “Do the Day-Job”.

A common currency will also provide industry with an overt clarity and agreement in the definition of capability and the contribution that a given supplier is expected to make to the programme. It provides for a common agreement on the judgement and measurement criteria that can be applied through the acquisition life-cycle as represented in the Value (outcome) Realisation Plan. It allows the industrial complex to make meaningful risk assumptions against which a contractual framework can be developed.

Through Life Capability Management aims to deliver the most effective military capability to meet the current operational demands of Front Line Commands with the durability and flexibility to still be meeting their demands over the next few decades. Crucial to its success, therefore, is a common currency, such as that outlined above, with the ability to properly define and prioritise capability investment decisions that can define the portfolio capability for coming months and years.