9th-12th-Lancers - Year 2002 - Page 0055
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| Regiment | 9th/12th Lancers |
|---|---|
| Year | 2002 |
| Transcription |
REGIMENTAL JOURNAL OF THE 9TH/12TH ROYAL LANCERS (PRINCE OF WALES’S) 53 Defence Procurement here was a certain amount of incredulity among my con- temporaries when I announced I was doing the Dagger Course and it was fun to let them wonder why I wanted to do the Royal Marines selection! The Dagger course I attended is the Defence Technology Course (MA) at Shrivenham, effective- ly the frst year of the Staff course. The aim of the Dagger is to produce Weapons qualified officers to take up the Grey Bag Jobs in the Integrated Project Teams at Abbeywood, Bristol, or to become a Desk Officer in London. The Dagger runs for 9 months in 3 term blocks; the first block is a particularly will sapping defence management before beginning the hands on practical technology. With over 600 similarly aged, like-minded people, the social life is good. More so for the pads as every aspect of family life is catered for. Shrivenham caters for all sports and pastimes; Bill Fooks and I shot on the college shoot; adventurous training is encouraged in the stand down periods and there are plenty of rivers to fish. The Dagger is refreshingly mature for a military course. There are no role calls, no duty students and a suprising amount ofpri- vate study to fill with in depth research and reading, or Golf, depends on your bent really. On completing the Dagger I have, as a non grad, left with a weapons tick in the box and another string to my bow, a City and Guilds award and a Diploma that will become an MA in Military Studies on completion of a dis- sertation. I would heartily recommend the course, but at the time I left there was rumour that the DTC MA was to be no more. DPA Abbey Wood The Grey bag list came out in the last 4 months of the Dagger Course and all of us at Shrivenham agreed it was a pretty motley selection ........ bar Australia. On pedalling furiously home to announce that we were all set to go to Darwin, I was shot down in flames; ‘don’t want to go’, the joys ofbeing married! Hence I find myself on the top floor of a building named after a shrubbery, in an open plan office overlooking Sainsbury’s and B&Q in Abbeywood. Abbeywood is the home of the D e f e n c e «iii Procurement Agency (DPA) in Bristol, from here every piece of equipment that the forces use is procured. In this building is the Type 45 Destroyer, the comedy that is Eurofighter and my Integrated Project Team (IPT); Combat Support Vehicle Light (CSVL). My IPT is responsible for procuring all Light Combat Support Vehicles, from the diesel motorcycle to trucks with a payload of 6 tonnes. In addition we buy all the SF kit, MOD plod, civvy, SF and SIB cars. My job is that of Requirements Manager, primarily ensuring the users (read Army’s) require- ments for a new vehicle are captured and passed to industry. The job is suprisingly rewarding. One of my projects, the Operational Portable Office (a box body) is nearing manufacture with one delivered to 9/12L in Mar 03 and several being rushed to the Gulf. Through out this project it has been good to put a military spin on the outcome and as such I believe the OPO in service will be liked for its user friendliness. I am also respon- sible for the diesel motorcycle, TUM FFR, a trailer for Apache, the Royal Marines VIKING vehicle and a £550 Million project for the replacement of Wolf. In the name of the DPA I have driven VIKING, various UNIMOG, the diesel bike, quads, SUPACATs, pinzgauer, the new Range Rover for a weekend and a rather fast police car. The job has taken me all over the UK, to Denmark, Germany and Belgium and later this year Australia and America. Urgent Operational Requirements (UORs) have been flooding in in the current climate. The least glamorous to date have been for sewerage machines! The turn around with UORs is very tight, sometimes as little as weeks to procure a capability and move it to theatre. The DPA is an alien environment and one that I have taken a long time to adjust to. The work is satisfying and I do feel that I am capable of improving the user friendliness and quality of the projects I am working on, a bent for technology and machin- ery certainly helps. Working at the DPA is something most Officers and a few WOs will have a chance to do, it is not something to be wary of or avoid, as I have found out, even a box body can hold untold rewards and satisfaction! BvS7 Armoured A// Terra/n veh/c/e |
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