Say goodbye to domestic tank building

[rhinochopig]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/in...

I despair sometimes I really do. In the article in the Telegraph on Sunday, it stated that even the bloody Army preferred the UK concept. Why has the key business model for UK PLC for the last 30 years been to outsource absolutely everything possible? We'll get to a point soon where we can no longer make anything at all and are totally reliant on the rest of the world.

Edited by rhinochopig on Monday 15th March 10:21

[Elroy Blue]

That's a contract for the US army!

[elster]

Elroy Blue said:

That's a contract for the US army!

I was wondering the same.

[AndrewW-G]

Link to UK tank contract story


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/in...

[Hugo a Gogo]

and then Winky whines that the americans 'unfairly' picked the Boeing tanker instead of the Airbus one

[rhinochopig]

AndrewW-G said:

Link to UK tank contract story


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/in...

Cheers, I had a business week link originally and changed it at the last minute before submitting to what I thought was the Telegraph story I was referring to - should have read more than the title. Oops.

I'll edit my OP.

[elster]

Labour really don't want any votes in the NE do they?!

You would have thought the "Labour heartland" would have been aided during the downturn. However the major concentration of large scale closures seem to happening in the NE.

[HundredthIdiot]

AndrewW-G said:

Link to UK tank contract story

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/in...

BAE offering jobs for handouts? I'm shocked. This is totally without precedent.

Not.

[5unny]

But the American bid will actually create more UK jobs - 10,500 if we are to believe their figures. This dwarfs BAE's offer of an extra 500.

http://www.generaldynamics.uk.com/FRES/News_articl...

And it is interesting to note BAE were going to make most of the parts for this project in Sweden however now see that they may lose the bid so have offered this last minute carrot.

Maybe they should just offer Gordon a brown envelope for his election campaign, that may guarantee the bid.

[elster]

5unny said:

But the American bid will actually create more UK jobs - 10,500 if we are to believe their figures. This dwarfs BAE's offer of an extra 500.

http://www.generaldynamics.uk.com/FRES/News_articl...

And it is interesting to note BAE were going to make most of the parts for this project in Sweden however now see that they may lose the bid so have offered this last minute carrot.

Maybe they should just offer Gordon a brown envelope for his election campaign, that may guarantee the bid.

That is not what it says.

9000 of those aren't really jobs that are being created.

They will be people who are employed currently by suppliers, such as an o ring manufacturer. Then the supplier of the material for the o ring would be the indirect.

So really it is 1,620 of those are jobs that will be safeguarded not created.

Maybe 200 are new jobs from that article.

[Ayahuasca]

rhinochopig said:

Why has the key business model for UK PLC for the last 30 years been to outsource absolutely everything possible?

Return on investment, old boy. Most MBA courses over the last couple of decades have preached the virtues of focusing on key competences that MUST be kept in-house and outsourcing everything else.

[rhinochopig]

Ayahuasca said:

rhinochopig said:

Why has the key business model for UK PLC for the last 30 years been to outsource absolutely everything possible?

Return on investment, old boy. Most MBA courses over the last couple of decades have preached the virtues of focusing on key competences that MUST be kept in-house and outsourcing everything else.

I understand that, but the ability to build the stuff needed to defend your country is surely considered a key competence? Same goes for the utilities, but we're losing those skills now too.

[Ayahuasca]

rhinochopig said:

Ayahuasca said:

rhinochopig said:

Why has the key business model for UK PLC for the last 30 years been to outsource absolutely everything possible?

Return on investment, old boy. Most MBA courses over the last couple of decades have preached the virtues of focusing on key competences that MUST be kept in-house and outsourcing everything else.

I understand that, but the ability to build the stuff needed to defend your country is surely considered a key competence?

If you are running the country, yes.

If you are running BAE, no.

[rhinochopig]

Ayahuasca said:

rhinochopig said:

Ayahuasca said:

rhinochopig said:

Why has the key business model for UK PLC for the last 30 years been to outsource absolutely everything possible?

Return on investment, old boy. Most MBA courses over the last couple of decades have preached the virtues of focusing on key competences that MUST be kept in-house and outsourcing everything else.

I understand that, but the ability to build the stuff needed to defend your country is surely considered a key competence?

If you are running the country, yes.

If you are running BAE, no.

Exactly, so if the government wants the capability, they have to give business to the organisations where that capability is held. Or they make the strategic decision to outsource and rely on imported materiel. Either way, they need to be clear on this so the future generations considering career choices at least have a fighting chance at getting a job in a sector that still exists by the time they leave education.

[AndrewW-G]

rhinochopig said:

Ayahuasca said:

rhinochopig said:

Ayahuasca said:

rhinochopig said:

Why has the key business model for UK PLC for the last 30 years been to outsource absolutely everything possible?

Return on investment, old boy. Most MBA courses over the last couple of decades have preached the virtues of focusing on key competences that MUST be kept in-house and outsourcing everything else.

I understand that, but the ability to build the stuff needed to defend your country is surely considered a key competence?

If you are running the country, yes.

If you are running BAE, no.

Exactly, so if the government wants the capability, they have to give business to the organisations where that capability is held. Or they make the strategic decision to outsource and rely on imported materiel. Either way, they need to be clear on this so the future generations considering career choices at least have a fighting chance at getting a job in a sector that still exists by the time they leave education.

Winky is only interested in "carbon neutral" or eco manufacturing, everything else (corus for example) can go to hell, no doubt there is also an EU or US-UK trade agreement out there, that would prohibit a UK government from buying British, rather than putting the work out to international tender.

labour - tough on employment, tough on the causes of employment

Edited by AndrewW-G on Monday 15th March 14:15

[HundredthIdiot]

rhinochopig said:

I understand that, but the ability to build the stuff needed to defend your country is surely considered a key competence? Same goes for the utilities, but we're losing those skills now too.

This isn't 1940. As far as I know all complex modern military kit is largely composed of foreign manufactured components (and it was probably partly the case even back then).

[Ayahuasca]

HundredthIdiot said:

rhinochopig said:

I understand that, but the ability to build the stuff needed to defend your country is surely considered a key competence? Same goes for the utilities, but we're losing those skills now too.

This isn't 1940. As far as I know all complex modern military kit is largely composed of foreign manufactured components (and it was probably partly the case even back then).

There is usually a large political influence on military hardware manufacture - e.g. 'export' models of jets (with less whizzy bits. Also the current tussle over the F-35 software codes.

[hidetheelephants]

Non-story; the Royal Ordnance chally assembly plant was in Leeds and it shut years ago. The required manufacturing plant is available and the design capability has been retained; what more do you want? We got out of the tank biz years ago, and tanks are currently out of fashion so we're unlikely to need anything other than uparmoured/upgunned challys for the forseeable future.