£2.4bn battlefield radios slammed by MPs

The military's £2.4bn battlefield digital radio system has been slammed by MPs for being late, outdated, too heavy for troops to carry and ineffective when it comes to preventing 'friendly fire' accidents.

The Combat Infrastructure Platform (CIP) and its Bowman digital radios were first accepted into military service in 2004. But the comms system's capability has been scaled down and several key features have had to be removed to enable the rest of the rollout to be completed in 2008.

One of the key capabilities that has been dropped is the ability to communicate data directly with allies' systems, which was aimed at reducing the risk of 'friendly fire' incidents on the battlefield.

The whole programme involves replacing the ageing analogue Clansman radios, used by the armed forces since the 1970s, with a secure digital communications system linked with the CIP computer-based battlefield management system across 15,700 land vehicles, 141 naval vessels and 60 helicopters.

The £2.4bn Bowman and CIP contracts were won by General Dynamics in 2001 and 2002 but the project has been beset by difficulties.

A report by parliamentary spending watchdog the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) this week criticised the Ministry of Defence (MoD) for failing to appoint a senior responsible owner with the responsibility, funding and authority to manage the programme.

Edward Leigh MP, chairman of the PAC, outlined the key failures in the report. He said: "It has proved hard to fit kit to vehicles because many differ from the standard configuration. The Bowman radio packs, despite the repeated concerns of directors of infantry, weigh a ton and so can't easily be carried by the infantry in combat.

"And Bowmen will not for the foreseeable future have the ability to communicate with our allies, the feature intended to lessen the likelihood of 'friendly fire' accidents. These problems must be sorted out."

Defence minister Paul Drayson said the MoD has learnt its lessons from the Bowman project and added that the radios are helping the armed forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

He said in a statement: "The MoD has learnt the lessons from these issues and is implementing a reform programme across defence acquisition to improve significantly our performance. The Bowman system is world class and our forces in Iraq and Afghanistan are benefiting from it today."