ABSTRACT
This chapter evaluates how successful Conservative governments were in establishing a more commercial regime. It explores how successful these reforms were in generating savings in the defence procurement budget. The chapter describes how far, and to what extent, the reforms solved the problem of managing and controlling technically complex projects on time and within budget. In terms of implementation and coverage of the defence procurement process the government was very successful in introducing better commercial practice in defence procurement. The need for such ambitious technological development was such that risk always imposed a limit on the involvement of the firm. The reform of the defence procurement process, by Conservative governments, between 1979-97, was successful in so far as they were able to implement their radical programme of reform in the face of significant obstacles and constraints. A fundamental problem with the reforms was that they did not generate the kind of financial and technical stability that had been anticipated.
