Case Study: Project Bowman

•  Objective: To understand the processes occurring in

the procurement of the Bowman communications
system in the light of equipment acquisition policy.

•  Structure of the presentation:

–  1. A tour through the development of British
procurement policy.
–  2. Analysis of the development of the Bowman
programme (1986 - Summer 1998).
–  3. Class Discussion to think about better ways of
managing this of other future projects.
 Procurement - I
“The aim of defence procurement is to meet the
operational requirements of the armed forces, in
the timescale in which the equipment is needed,
and at maximum overall cost effectiveness to the
defence budget” - RMCS Defence management precis, 4th ed.

•  Operational requirements - But at what cost ?

•  Timescales - political expediency ?
•  Cost effectiveness - Definition please ?
 Procurement II
So do our allies have things better ?

•  Three cases from the United States:

- Sergeant York air defence system.

- The F16 v. F15 air superiority fighter.
- The B1 Strategic bomber.

•  Subtitle: Maybe its not so bad after all ?

 UK Defence procurement I
•  Churchill’s story (1944).
•  The ‘Good chaps’ Theory of procurement.
•  The 1960s, budget crunches and the
introduction of scientific ‘rigour’.
•  The 1980s: Competition and the move from cost
plus. US & UK philosophy.
% Budget allocation by principal
headings 1964 - 1995
Personnel
60
Equipment
50 Other

40

30

20

10

0
1964

1966

1968

1970

1972

1974

1976

1978

1980

1982

1984

1986

1988

1990

1992

1994
 UK Defence Procurement II -The
1980s
•  1983 - MoD must use Private sector “unless
more cost effective or operationally essential”.

•  Spending on equipment peaked in 1985.

•  Declined 18% in real terms (inflation) between

1986/87 and 1990/91.
 % Share of UK Procurement
Production budget by service 1986 -
1995
30

25

20

15

10 RN
RAF
5
Army
0
1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995
 UK Defence Procurement III - The
early 1990s
•  The Defence inflation Bubble bursts and
‘Options-for-change’.
•  1991 New Management Strategy creates project
managers responsible for in-house resources.
•  Philosophical objective - “To shift risk onto
suppliers whenever possible”.
 UK Procurement: Summary
•  The industry edge.
•  The political process brokering compromise leading to
consequences.
•  The Ministry - Is too much being asked ?
•  Smart Procurement - Story for another day.

“Proper decision-making on difficult issues is becoming

less and less likely’ - Bill Kincaid (1997).
 The Bowman programme
The requirement:
“to provide a tactical, secure voice and data
communications system for tri-service use in all land-
based operations and training... It is expected to remain
in service until 2025 and beyond”
A communications system fitted to every platform in the
British armed services.
 Background to Bowman I
•  W.W.II and the Larkspur programme - The push
towards commonality.
•  The 1960s, Clansman breaking new ground with five
basic radios.
•  For the services, Clansman was a family of radios
easily integrated to vehicles.
•  For industry Clansman was an export success story.
 Background to Bowman II
•  Early 1980s - struggle to deal with impending
obsolescence of Clansman.
•  Bowman considered initially as Clansman plus a
limited data transfer ability.
•  Developing need for transmitting data between
surveillance and target acquisition systems.
•  Software as crucial. Possibility to configure device
very easily.
•  Challenge for the Royal Signals - convincing other to
spend their budget !
 Project Bowman start - 1986
•  1986, Age of the Yuppie, one year before the
stockmarket crash.
•  Bowman performance requirement set by diverse
group:
- DERA (DSTL).
- Programmes group (Production focus).
- Requirements group (tri-service).
•  Effectiveness of people as central to successful
functioning of team.
 Project Bowman 1986
•  Problem of reporting chains outside the project group.
•  COEIA requirement was 120 pages long.
•  1988: 2 stage programme started

Stage 1 - Procure new battlefield radios.

Stage 2 - Turn Bowman into high capacity data
transmission network.

For each stage a FS and PD / AP (TLAs).

 Project Bowman 1988
•  Cardinal point specification adopted.
•  Tri-service Bowman Military Team as key.
•  Financial risk pushed to contractors.
•  1991 - three industry teams emerge to compete for
‘winner-takes-all’ programme.
•  Arrowhead, Yeoman and Crossbow.
•  Enter politics of national production.
 Bowman 1993
•  PD1 contracts awarded (Yeoman & Crossbow).
•  1995 House of Commons PAC reports that
Bowman is four years late.
•  £200m penalty upgrading Clansman to soldier
on.
•  1996 - Trials of equipment.
•  ISD slips to total of 52 months.
•  Problem of requirement drift (IT).
 Bowman
•  Problem identified by NAO of accessing schematics
for platforms to fit Bowman to.
•  1997 - Fait accompli or blessed marriage ? Industry
groups combine to form Archer.
•  Industry passes risk back to MoD or just removes it
from itself ?
•  MoD agrees relationship with Archer.
 The onward march of technology
•  1997: UK Bowman planned data transfer rate twice
that of US SINCGARS.
•  Force XXI trials found six times the SINCGARS rate
were necessary.
•  R&D effort underway in US for system with twice that
(i.e. twelve times SINCGARS).

US describe process as, “giving birth to a bale of barbed

wire”.
 Final Statistics

•  £90m + Spent to date.

•  Programme involves fitting the communications
equipment to 25,000 vehicles from 1,000 types
and 130 families.
•  52 months delayed so far.
 Discussion points

•  What does the programme show about

competition ?
•  Could the delays and cost increases have been
avoided ? How ?
•  What lessons are there ?