Britain’s FRES Program has a Full February

GD’s AHED Cutaway(click to view full) February 2007 has been an eventful month for the FRES program. Some important milestones were reached, political controversy over the MoD’s medium armored vehicle strategy erupted in the Parliamentary Defence Committee, and the MoD fired back with a response. The first event was the attainment of an important milestone. Following the endorsement of the FRES Acquisition Strategy and the publication of the EOI(Expression of Interest) for the Utility Vehicle competitions, the latest FRES requirements documents were made available to industry. The UK Defence Procurement Agency release to industry, via the Defence Contracts Bulletin (DCB) on January 25th, offered an invitation to tender (ITT) for both the vehicle integrator and design packages of the FRES-UV programme. The move will bring FRES’ initial assessment phase to a close, as it begins a transition toward acquisition. Parliament(click to view full) The second event involved the UK’s Parliamentary Defence Committee published its Seventh Report of Session 2006-07: The Army’s requirement for armoured vehicles: the FRES programme, HC 159. The accompanying press release was titled: “Make Up Your Mind On Army’s Armoured Vehicles, Defence Committee Tells MoD.” The report is highly critical of the UK MoD’s multiple plans over […]