The acquisition of new
equipment for the Army, Air Corps and the Naval Service is a matter that is kept under constant review at a senior level in my Department and in the Defence Forces, through joint participation in the High Level Planning and Procurement Group. This Group is charged with identifying equipment requirements and agreeing on a procurement programme to provide the Defence Forces with the type and quantities of equipment necessary to carry out their assigned duties. These are all issues that are also being considered in the drafting of the new White Paper on Defence.
Decisions are made accordingly on a strictly prioritised basis in accordance with operational priorities with a view to maintaining the capability of all roles assigned by Government to the Defence Forces. Also, in the current economic climate the budgetary situation will continue to dictate the level of funding available for new equipment and for equipment upgrades.
The operational requirement for an Air Defence capability within the Defence Forces is based on the White Paper on Defence (2000) which called for “a light infantry based force with an all-arms capability.” The knowledge and skills related to Ground Based Air Defence (GBAD) is an essential core element of such a force design and will remain a fundamental capability into the future. Contingent military capability, if lost, is time consuming and expensive to replace.
The existing GBAD, RBS 70 system, which is 30 years old, now requires a major upgrade to allow it to meet with current and future capability requirements. Accordingly, a contract valued at €4.1m ex VAT, has recently been awarded to the original equipment manufacturer, Saab Dynamics AB, Sweden for an upgrade programme which will ensure that the system will remain as a state of the art GBAD system for at least the next fifteen to twenty years.
