User talk:Aldrictalvalin

We spend so much money within the UK that the armed forces are suffering. I don't mean in pay or benefits but in there basic equipment. The forces are expected to 'make do', the Royal Navy in the 90's coined the phrase 'Just enough Just in time', unfortunetly it has turned out 'too little, too late'. We are an Island and need an adequate Navy, Army and Air Force. Let us build bigger and better seagoing vessels, let us give the Army the tools not just to fight a war but to win and be victorious and let us rule the air above our country and give confidence to our ground forces when in combat. I suppose my point is that there are too many people taking too many payments for contracts within the military. We seem to create courses for kit not available or unworkable, then we buy kit which is either not up to standard or have no training in place for it. For example the Royal Navy ordered a new IT suite for its Command Submarine System (CSS). EDS won the contract (why oh why) and brought a system in to operation within the UK surface and submarine fleet. Instead of getting a new system with an easy GUI for seaman officers consisting of an easy to administrate server and connectivity process, what we got was second hand, superceded and cloned equipment. The system consisted of 3 servers (one which was the original server, one which was the account server and one which was cloned - oh did i mention so was the mac address). The system ran on an NT O/S (although the RN stated that all NT would be superceded some years before). The system plagued with bugs, as easy to navigate as trying to give a Gnat a circumcision and as user friendly as a skinhead with a cricket bat. We could have got a couple of chaps from the John Moore University in Liverpool to create bespoke software for less than ten percent than EDS gets and it would have been user friendly and with s single end user server. EDS does not support overseas as it is not in the contract (weird that the system is in submarines then) and engineer support for units deployed is poor at least. Someone, somewhere must have got money out of this contract, to think that someone didn't benefit from this contract would be criminal. In my opinion the MoD should have a tri service panel of 'field expertise' to test, trial and procure equipment and supplies. Trust me it will save money because the kit will work. There is too much civilian support within the MoD, civilian companies who bid and win contracts then say 'oh we can't do that, the union won't like it, or, it will cost more in overtime'. I say Bollocks. If the men and women of this great nation are brave enough to stand up and ensure our way of life, then it is our duty to stand with them and say enough is enough. Give the armed forces the right equipment and support infastructure. Stop the abuse of power in military procurement and sales. Let the guys who use the euipment be the judge of what they should be getting.