In 1998 the Ministry of Defence (MoD) decided that the UK Army required a fleet of armoured vehicles to fulfil the expeditionary role envisaged in the Strategic Defence Review. Experience on operations in Iraq and Afghanistan has underlined the requirement for a vehicle which is manoeuvrable yet has sufficient armoured protection.

To meet urgent operational need the MoD has had to upgrade the armour of a range of existing vehicles. It has also procured UK-made Vector protected patrol vehicles and US-made Mastiff armoured vehicles for deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan. These vehicles, which cost a total of £120 million, do not provide a long-term solution to the requirement for a medium-weight fighting vehicle.

Since 1998 the MoD has sponsored two collaborative programmes to meet this longer-term requirement: the UK / US TRACER programme and the UK / German MRAV 'Boxer' programme. Both programmes ended in their 'concept' stage after the MoD had spent a total of £188 million.

Between 2001 and 2003 the MoD commissioned Alvis Vickers to carry out 'concept work' on a new programme: the Future Rapid Effect System (FRES). There appears to be little tangible output from this concept work which cost the MoD a combined total of £192 million.

In 2004 the MoD announced a two year Initial Assessment Phase (IAP) for the FRES programme—since extended to July 2007. Atkins has been appointed by the MoD as 'Systems House' to the FRES project, and nine Technology Demonstrator Programmes (TDPs) have been awarded. The TDPs will culminate in a 'trial of truth' in the summer of 2007.

The FRES programme is expected to deliver 3,000 vehicles in 16 battlefield roles. It will comprise three families of vehicles: Utility, Heavy and Reconnaissance. The MoD plans to deliver the Utility vehicle first. The MoD has set four key requirements of the FRES Utility vehicle: 'survivability' through the integration of armour; 'deployability' by the A400M aircraft; networked-enabled capability through the integration of digital communication technology, and through-life upgrade potential throughout its anticipated 30 year service life.

The requirement is challenging. There is a tension between the vehicle weight requirement, its upgrade potential over its lifetime and the ability to transport it by air. Additional armour has already increased the weight requirement of FRES from 17 tonnes to between 20-27 tonnes. If the requirement is continually revised a vicious circle of delays to the programme could result.

The expected In-Service-Date for FRES has slipped from 2009 to "the early part of the next decade": the Systems House doubts that it will be achievable before 2017. The MoD will now not announce a target In-Service-Date for FRES until the programme has passed its Main Gate assessment.

The MoD's attempts to meet its medium-weight vehicle requirement have been a sorry story of indecision, changing requirements and delay. It is high time the MoD decided where its priorities lay. We shall take further evidence on the FRES programme in the Autumn of this year.