Written question asked by Lord Soames of Fletching (Conservative) on Thursday, 8 January 2004, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 20 January 2004. It was answered by Adam Ingram (Labour) on Tuesday, 20 January 2004 on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.

Ministry of Defence

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what shortcomings were identified in the Oscar strategic communications system procured for use during Operation TELIC; and how much was spent on the system. - Inc figures.

Answer: Mr. Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what shortcomings were identified in the Oscar strategic communications system procured for use during Operation TELIC; and how much was spent on the system. [147276] Mr. Ingram: The Operations and Strategic Communications Architecture (OSCA) system was procured at short notice to enhance our strategic communications capability. The lack of scope to engineer the solution full and the requirement to integrate OSCA into the existing UK military communications infrastructure caused some difficulties. These difficulties did not significantly affect the operational outcome. Some £13 million was spent on acquiring the hardware and costs of some £20 million have been incurred in running the system up to December 2003.

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: 416 c1121W; 147276
Session: 2003-04
Subjects: Armed forces Costs Armed conflict Defence equipment Communication Iraq Procurement Iraq conflict
Contains statistics: Yes
Link: View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk