Armed forces computer system over budget

Currently the Ministry of Defence and the armed forces are using three hundred systems, but a £7.1 billion plan to change this into one system is already running eighteen months behind schedule and is over budget by £182 million.

The Defence Information Infrastructure (DII) programme is being provided by the Atlas consortium led by the US computer giant EDS, who have actually already been involved in other government projects which have also proved to be controversial.

The idea is to provide a hundred and fifty thousand terminals in over two thousand locations.

These include places abroad where the British military forces are based as well as on warships of the royal Navy.

According to statistics provided by the National Audit Office (NAO), there should have been over sixty two thousand terminals installed at the end of 2007, but the actual amount is only twenty nine thousand.

The reason for the delay is said to be the state of the military sites where the new technology is supposed to have been installed, which includes power supply problems and asbestos being found at some sites.

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