On a quiet day for defence news, a review of MOD procurement and Army assistance to tackle elephant poaching in Africa receive newspaper coverage.
DEFENCE PROCUREMENT REVIEW
The Times reports that the MOD has asked former equipment chief Sir Bernard Gray to review the state of the department’s procurement programme over the next few months. Our statement on the review is below:
Sir Bernard Gray has been asked to undertake a technical review into the state of the procurement landscape. The review will look at the recommendations made in Sir Bernard’s 2009 Review of Defence Acquisition and Lord Levene’s 2011 report on Defence Reform. The report will examine the degree and success of the implementation of the recommendations of these reports in order to inform future strategy and direction.
Sir Bernard is well placed to undertake this work having written the 2009 report assessing the problems that existed within Defence Acquisition, and, as the former CDM, he has considerable experience of leading efforts to reform DE&S and the challenges in doing so.
AFRICAN ELEPHANT POACHING
There is coverage of a global summit being held to reduce poaching and eradicate the illegal ivory trade in order to save the African elephant from extinction. Articles reference British Army support which you can read more about here.
The Independent (app edition) writes that the Army, which has a training base in Kenya, is to commit to a huge fence-building project to protect local farmers and their crops from being trampled by elephants. The Daily Mail reports that yesterday it was announced that a team of British Army instructors has arrived in Gabon, home to more than half of Africa’s forest elephants, to help park rangers there.
Minister for Reserves Julian Brazier said:
Our Armed Forces are among the best in the world and this important training demonstrates Britain’s commitment to Defence engagement and tackling threats. We have put our full support behind the Gabonese government in the battle against the scourge of ivory poaching.
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