Through Life Capability Management (TLCM) - Understanding the
Complexity
How does the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) ensure that it
continually delivers new military capability that actually meets
the current and future requirements of our front line forces, in a
security environment where they are facing increasingly
unpredictable asymmetric threats?
The answer, until very recently at least, is not all that well. A
point illustrated by the fact that the MOD is currently spending
approximately £1.4bn on over 230 Urgent Operational Requirements
(UORs), in addition to its planned projects.
However, the Defence Acquisition Change Programme (DACP) is
aiming to change this and ensure that UK armed forces are equipped
with the most effective military capability for now and the next 30
years.
The DACP was born out of the UK MOD’s 2005 Defence Industrial Strategy (DIS) and the
recommendations of the subsequent Enabling Acquisition Change (EAC)
report (2006).
These documents outlined the cold reality that in order to
effectively deliver UK military capability for the foreseeable
future, both the UK MOD and the UK defence industrial complex
needed to evolve significantly. Intrinsic to them both was the
concept of Through Life Capability Management (TLCM).
TLCM means “…an approach to the acquisition and
in-service management of military capability in which every aspect
of new and existing military capability is planned and managed
coherently … from cradle to grave.”
TLCM means capability is assessed, prioritised
and budgeted for; not just by Main Building, but by Front Line
Command.
TLCM means evaluating capability not just in
the terms of a single piece of equipment, but as ‘systems of
systems’, across all nine Defence Lines of Development (DLoDs):
Training; Equipment; Personnel; Information; Concepts and Doctrine;
Organisation; Infrastructure; Logistics and Interoperability.
For the first time, the procurement of UK military capability
will be evaluated with a broader look across the acquisition
lifecycle; not just by a front end process of acquiring kit and
making sure it was delivered to the front line in time.
The ability, therefore, to capture, visualise and understand the
multiple interdependencies of the required systems of systems
capability (as defined by priorities set by each separate DLoD), is
a hugely complex yet valuable task.
Even more complex, but absolutely essential, is the definition
of a common currency, by which the investment priorities of the
DLoDs can be assessed by the UK MOD acquisition community and
industrial complex charged with delivering the capability. This
common currency will enable these stakeholders to make informed
procurement decisions, reduce programme risk and deliver true
Through Life Capability.
A company providing some of the leading thoughts on how to
address this central complexity implicit in Through Life Capability
Management is the specialist professional services company,
VEGA.
According to VEGA, the foundation of a common currency will provide
the UK MOD acquisition community with the ability to compare
capability choices assessed by a differing DLoD evaluation
criterion. This will be against hard numeric values to support
decisions at the initiation of a new Equipment Programme within a
specific capability area, as well as the ability to support change
decisions within an extant Equipment Programme.
The ability to re-use information from an architectural
repository such as MODAR, and define new requirements using the
same (MODAF-based) Architectural Frameworks, takes much of the
donkey-work out for the UK MOD capability teams developing User
Requirement Documents and Supplier Requirement Documents. The
re-use of the same information when running choice scenarios will
ensure that the desk officers are deriving benefit from a decision
support technology that truly embraces interdependency complexity
without the level of effort that dilutes their ability to “Do the
Day-Job”.
Additionally, VEGA believes that a common currency will also
provide industry with an overt clarity and agreement in the
definition of capability and the contribution that a given supplier
is expected to make to the programme. It provides for a common
agreement on the judgement and measurement criteria that can be
applied through the acquisition life-cycle as represented in the
Value (outcome) Realisation Plan. It allows the industrial complex
to make meaningful risk assumptions against which a contractual
framework can be developed.
Through Life Capability Management aims to deliver the most
effective military capability to meet the current operational
demands of Front Line Commands with the durability and flexibility
to still be meeting their demands over the next few decades.
Crucial to its success, therefore, is a common currency, such as
that outlined by VEGA, with the ability to properly define and
prioritise capability investment decisions that can define the
portfolio capability for coming months and years.
Contact VEGA for more information about
Through Life Capability Management (TLCM)