Asked by: Lord Davies of Stamford (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of the power and propulsion systems of the Type 45 destroyer; what actions they plan to take and to what timescale in order to remedy any problems that may have been identified; what is the estimated cost of any necessary remedial work; and what share of this cost will be borne by public funds.
Answered by Lord Astor of Hever
As a new class of warship the Type 45 has experienced some equipment reliability issues. Most of these have been resolved. Work is continuing to resolve the remaining issues. This is being funded from within existing Ministry of Defence (MOD) support budgets.
In addition, options to undertake a Diesel Generator upgrade are being considered. This would add greater resilience to the Power and Propulsion system by increasing electrical generation capacity. The feasibility phase for this work, which is being co-funded by BAE Systems and the MOD, will conclude at the end of March 2015. A decision on whether to proceed with the upgrade programme will then be considered against wider Defence priorities and would be funded by the MOD.
I am withholding information about the potential costs for the Diesel Generator upgrade as releasing such information at this stage would prejudice the commercial interests of the MOD.
We have six in service, and the Type 45 class has demonstrated its capability, supporting operations in the Gulf and the South Atlantic.
Asked by: Lord Davies of Stamford (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the functionality, reliability and resilience to cyber-attack of the Autonomic Logistics Information System for the F35 aircraft.
Answered by Lord Astor of Hever
The F-35 Autonomic Logistics Information System (ALIS) has been designed to be resilient against cyber-attack and will be the subject of testing throughout the life of the programme. The ALIS capability has been used by the UK since 2012 to support the aircraft operating in the US and has not experienced any reliability issues and nor have the other partners.
In terms of resilience and business continuity, this is being ensured via the ALIS network architecture being installed at Main Operating Bases and deployed locations, which include the Queen Elizabeth Class Carriers.
Asked by: Lord Davies of Stamford (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what has been the underspend of the Ministry of Defence in the financial years 2010–11, 2011–12, 2012–13, 2013–14 and prospectively in 2014–15; and how much of the underspend in each of those years has been rolled forward and made available for additional spending by the Ministry of Defence in subsequent years.
Answered by Lord Astor of Hever
Comparable figures for financial year 2010-11 are not available as the Government had not, at that time, introduced The Clear of Line Sight initiative, which precludes analysis on a near cash basis for that financial year.
In 2011-12 the Ministry of Defence (MOD) underspent by £300 million and there was no budget exchange.
In 2012-13 the MOD underspent by £2.3 billion; £590 million was rolled forward into 2013-14, £1,706 million into 2014-15 and £21 million in 2015-16.
In 2013-14 the MOD underspent by £900 million, £100 million was rolled forward into 2014-15 and £700 million in 2015-16.
The MOD's final outturn for 2014-15 will not be available until the end of the financial year.