Defence Equipment and Support

Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) is a trading entity and joint-defence organisation within the UK Ministry of Defence. It began operating on 2 April 2007, following the merger of the MoD's Defence Procurement Agency and the Defence Logistics Organisation, under the Chief Executive Officer of Defence Equipment and Support.^[1]

Defence Equipment and Support

Agency overview
Formed	2 April 2007
Jurisdiction	United Kingdom
Headquarters	MoD Abbey Wood, Bristol, England 51.5033°N 2.55917°W / 51.5033; -2.55917
Minister responsible	Minister of State for Defence Procurement and Industry
Parent agency	Ministry of Defence

DE&S initially had a civilian and military workforce of around 29,000 (77 per cent civilian and 23 per cent military) in the UK and abroad. By 2022, the DE&S workforce had reduced to around 11,500^[2] with the majority based at MoD Abbey Wood in Bristol.^[3]

History

DE&S headquarters, Abbey Wood, Bristol

Defence Equipment and Support was established on 2 April 2007. It is overseen by the Minister of State for Defence Procurement. The organisation supports Strategic Command and the individual armed services through Navy Command, Army Headquarters and Headquarters Air Command.

Strategic governance

Defence Equipment and Support Board

Board members include:^[1]

Title	Name	Date
Chairman and Non-Executive Director	Mark Russell	2019–
MOD Permanent Secretary (PUS)	David Williams	2021–
Chief Executive Officer (DE&S)	Andy Start	2022–
Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff (Military Capability)	Lieutenant-General Sir Robert Magowan	2022–

Mark Russell was appointed Chairman in November 2019.^[4]

The board provides strategic governance for DE&S and a forum for independent, non-executive support and constructive challenge to the Chief Executive and the Executive Committee. The DE&S board delegates some activities to sub-committees, namely the Audit, Remuneration, Programme Review and Nomination Committees. The Chairman ensures that the board receives feedback on these sub-committees and that it is able to consider their recommendations.^[1]

Direction and oversight

Executive Committee Defence Equipment and Support

Members of the executive committee include:^[5]

Title	Name	Start Date
Chief Executive Officer (DE&S)	Andy Start	September 2022
DG (Ships)	Vice-Admiral Paul Marshall	2022
DG (Land)	Lieutenant-General Simon Hamilton	2024
DG (Air)	Vice-Admiral Sir Richard Thompson	2020
DG (Strategic Enablers)	Adrian Baguley	2018
DG Commercial	Andrew Forzani	2022
Finance Director	David Johnson	2019
Director Human Resources	Jill Hatcher	2021
Director Strategy & Corporate Ops	Kriahna Dhanak	2020

DE&S is led on a day-to-day basis by the Executive Committee, which consists of the Chief Executive Officer, Director Finance, Director Human Resources, Director Strategy & Corporate Operations, and five Director Generals who lead the delivery of the programme of work in their respective domains.^[1]

Sub-committees

The following subordinate Committees provide specialised support to the Executive Committee.^[1]

Name
Business Case Review Committee
Innovation & Prosperity Committee
People Committee
Performance Committee
Safety Committee
Security Committee
Transformation Committee

Administration of DE&S and senior leadership

The organisation has been under the leadership of a civilian Chief Executive Officer of Defence Equipment and Support since 2015.

Chief Executive Officer of Defence Equipment and Support

Chief of Defence Materiel

Name	Title	Date held
General Sir Kevin O'Donoghue[6]	Chief of Defence Materiel	2007–2010 [7]
Bernard Gray[8]	Chief of Defence Materiel	2011–2015
Tony Douglas[1]	CEO	2015–2018
Michael Bradley[9]	CEO	January 2018 – May 2018
Air Marshal Sir Simon Bollom[10]	CEO	May 2018 – August 2022
Andy Start[11]	CEO	September 2022 –

Director General for Air/Army/Navy/Strategic Enablers/Commercial/Resources

The Chiefs of Materiel (CofMs), now Director Generals (DGs), are responsible for managing key relationships with the capability sponsor and user. They work at the strategic level to make sure that the operational readiness and sustainability needs of the user are met.^[12]

The DGs ensure that an ethos of support to operations is in place throughout all DE&S activity.

Chief of Fleet Support

Chief of Materiel (Fleet)/Chief of Fleet Support/ ^[13][14][15]

Name	Date held
Vice-Admiral Sir Trevor Soar[16]	2007–2009
Vice-Admiral Sir Andrew Mathews	2009–2013
Vice-Admiral Sir Simon Lister[17][18]	2013–2017

Director General (Ships)

Chief of Materiel (Ships)

Name	Date held
Air Marshal Sir Simon Bollom[12]	2017–2018
Vice-Admiral Sir Christopher Gardner[19]	2019–present

Directorate of Ships Support

Director Ship Support

Name	Date held
Neal Lawson[12]	2017–2020
Russell Brown [20]	2020–present

Directorate of Ships Acquisition

Director Ship Acquisition

Name	Date held
Henry Parker[12]	2017–present

Chief of Materiel (Submarines)

This group now is part of the Submarine Delivery Agency.^[21]

Chief Executive

Name	Date held
Ian Booth[12]	2017–present

Chief of Materiel (Submarines); post renamed as Chief Executive Submarine Delivery Agency

Name	Date held
Vice-Admiral Sir Simon Lister[12]	2017–2017

Directorate of Submarine Acquisitions

Director Submarine Acquisition

Name	Date held
Rear-Admiral Paul Carroll	2024–present

Directorate of Submarines Support

Chief Strategic Systems Executive & Director Submarines Support

Name	Date held
Rear-Admiral Keith Beckett[12]	2017–present

Director General (Land)

Director General (Land)/QMG

Name	Date held
Lieutenant-General Dick Applegate[22]	16 January 2007[23] – 1 September 2009
Lieutenant-General Sir Gary Coward	1 September 2009[24] – May 2012
Lieutenant-General Sir Christopher Deverell	May 2012 – 8 March 2016[25]
Lieutenant-General Paul Jaques[12]	8 March 2016 – 7 December 2019[26]
Chris Bushell [20]	7 December 2019 – present

Directorate of Land Equipment

Director Land Equipment

Name	Date held
Major-General Robert Talbot Rice[12]	2017–2017
Major-General Colin McClean[27]	2017–2019
Major-General Darren Crook[28]	2019–present

Directorate of Weapons

Director Weapons

Name	Date held
Richard Smart[12]	2017–2020
Ed Cutts [20]	2020–present

Director General (Air)

Director General (Air)

Name	Date held
Air Marshal Sir Barry Thornton[22]	1 April 2007 – 30 April 2009
Air Marshal Sir Kevin Leeson	1 May 2009[29] – October 2012
Air Marshal Sir Simon Bollom	October 2012 – April 2016
Air Marshal Sir Julian Young[12]	April 2016 – September 2020
Vice-Admiral Sir Richard Thompson[30]	September 2020 – present

Directorate of Air Support

Director Air Support

Name	Date held
Adrian Baguley[12]	2017–2019
Richard Murray[12]	2019–present

Directorate of Combat Air

Director Combat Air

Name	Date held
Air Vice-Marshal Keith Bethell[12]	2017–present

Director General Strategic Enablers

Director General (Strategic Enablers=)

Name	Date held
Dr Andrew Tyler	1 May 2011 – 21 June 2011
Trevor Woolley	1 June 2011
Peter Worrall[12]	October 2013 – present
Adrian Baguley[12][20]	July 2019 – present

Directorate of Intelligence, Surveillance, Target, Acquisition & Reconnaissance

Director ISTAR

Name	Date held
Dr Simon Dakin[20]	2020–present

Directorate of Engineering & Safety

Director Engineering & Safety

Name	Date held
Stephen Wilcock [20]	2020–present

Directorate of Digital Information

Director Chief Digital Information Officer (CIO)

Name	Date held
Nigel Shaw[20]	2020–present

Directorate of Programmes & Change

Director Programmes & Change

Name	Date held
Simon Hughes[20]	2020–present

Directorate of Helicopters

Director Helicopters

Name	Date held
Air Vice-Marshal Graham Russell[12][20]	2017–present

Directorate of Support

Director Support

Name	Date held
Steve Glass[20]	2020–present

Directorate-General (Commercial)

Director-General, Commercial

Name	Date held
Nick Elliot[12]	2015–2020
Morag Stuart [20]	2020–present

Commercial Operations

Director DE&S Commercial Operations

Name	Date held
Alan Peter[12]	2017–present
Phil Tozer[12][20]	2017–present

Commercial Capability

Director Commercial Capability

Name	Date held
Mike Greatwich[12]	2017–present

Commercial Improvements

Director Commercial Improvements

Name	Date held
Morag Stuart[12]	2017–2020
Graham Hyndman [20]	2020–present

Directorate-General (Resources)

Director-General, Resources

Name	Date held
Michael Bradley[12]	2016–2018
David Johnson[12]	2019–present

Financial Planning & Analysis

Director Financial Planning & Analysis

Name	Date held
David Johnson[12]	2017–2019
Ann Underwood[12][20]	2017–present

Directorate Human Resources

Director Human Resources

Name	Date held
Don Cuthbert[12]	2016
Daniel Griffiths[12]	2019 – present

Deputy Director HR Head of Function – HR

Deputy Director HR Head of Function – HR

Name	Date held
Katie Sloggett[20]	2020 – present

HR Operations

Head of HR Operations

Name	Date held
Scott Murray[20]	2020 – present

Performance & Reward

Head of Performance & Reward

Name	Date held
Nick Jackson, interim[20]	2020 – present

Talent & Organisation Development

Head of Talent & Organisation Development

Name	Date held
Amanda Lammonby[20]	2020 – present

HR (Strategic Enablers)

Head of HR (Strategic Enablers)

Name	Date held
Ruth Moesby[20]	2020 – present

HR (Land)

Head of HR (Land)

Name	Date held
Maureen Doherty[20]	2020 – present

HR (Air & Ships)

Head of HR (Air & Ships)

Name	Date held
Rachel Tothill[20]	2020 – present

HR (Military Human Resources & Commanding Officer)

Head of HR (Military Human Resources & Commanding Officer)

Name	Date held
Captain Nicholas Dodd[20]	2020 – present

Directorate Strategy & Change

Director Strategy & Change

Name	Date held
Barry Burton[12]	2019–2020
Krishna Dhanak[20]	2020–present

International Relations Group

International Relations Group

Name	Date held
Valerie Evans[12][20]	2019–present

Corporate Communications

Corporate Communications

Name	Date held
Dawn Cunningham-Martin[20]	2020–present

COVID-19 Operations Cell

COVID-19 Operations Cell

Name	Date held
Air Commodore Rob Woods[20]	2020–present

Major projects

DE&S manages over 600 defence procurement and support programmes for the UK's armed services.^[31] Examples of current and future procurement projects include:

Ships

• Type 45 destroyer class
• Astute submarine class
• Albion landing platform dock class
• Bay landing ship dock class
• Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carrier class
• Type 26 frigate warship class
• Type 31 frigate class
• River-class patrol vessel
• Tide-class tanker
• Solid Support Ship
• Vanguard submarine class
• Dreadnought-class submarine – replacement class for the Vanguard class

Aircraft

• Eurofighter Typhoon fighter aircraft
• F-35 Joint Strike Fighter fighter aircraft
• Airbus A400M transport aircraft
• C-17 Globemaster III transport aircraft
• Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft (FSTA)/Airbus A330 MRTT aerial refueling tanker
• Apache AH64E attack helicopter
• Merlin HC4 support and Merlin Mk2 anti-submarine warfare helicopters
• Hawk 128 advanced jet trainer
• Watchkeeper Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
• Sentinel R1
• Beechcraft Shadow R1
• Airseeker
• Protector UAV
• Boeing P-8A Poseidon MRA Mk1

Vehicles

• Warrior
• Challenger 2 and Challenger 3
• Mastiff (MRAP) Protected Patrol Vehicle
• Ajax (Scout SV)
• Panther Command and Liaison Vehicle
• Jackal 2 & 3 and Coyote
• Viking armoured personnel carrier
• Mechanised Infantry Vehicle (Boxer)
• Multi Role Vehicle-Protected (MRV-P) (MRV-P)^[32]

Munitions

• AIM-132 ASRAAM (air-to-air missile)
• Meteor air-to-air missile
• Storm Shadow cruise missile
• Brimstone air-launched anti-tank guided missile
• FGM-148 Javelin anti-tank guided missile
• NLAW (MBT LAW) anti-tank missile
• SPEAR, Selective Precision Effects At Range munitions; see, for example, SPEAR 3

Other

• Future Integrated Soldier Technology modular infantry equipment system
• Bowman tactical communications system
• Skynet 5 strategic communications satellite system
• Light weapons, photography and batteries (LWPB)

Main locations

As of 2016 the main locations (with staff numbers) were:^[33]

• MoD Abbey Wood (7,920) – Head Office
• DM Beith (220) – Defence Munitions
• MoD Bicester (140) – Logistics
• HMNB Clyde (100) – Fleet Support and Defence Munitions
• HMNB Devonport (220) – Fleet Support and Defence Munitions
• DM Kineton (240) – Defence Munitions
• DM Longtown (120) – Defence Munitions
• Ministry of Defence, London (90) – Policy
• RAF Northolt (210) – British Forces Post Office
• HMNB Portsmouth and DM Gosport (350) – Fleet Support and Defence Munitions
• Rosyth Dockyard (120) – Fleet Support and Defence Munitions
• RAF Waddington (170) – ISTAR Support
• Yeovil (410) – Helicopter Support

Responsibility for 'Logistics, Commodities and Services' (including storage and delivery of non-weaponry equipment, such as food and clothing, to soldiers)^[34] was contracted out to the private sector in 2015 under an arrangement that included the transfer of 1,100 staff and construction of a new Defence Fulfilment Centre at MoD Donnington.^[33]