Last month On Target profiled DMO - what it is, and what it does.

This month On Target looks at the Capability Development Group and explores its relationship with DMO. 

The Capability Development Group (CDG) has a mission: to provide the Government of Australia with decision-making information to enable it to make prudent and timely investments in Defence capability.

Lieutenant General David Hurley, Chief of Capability Development Group (CCDG) has the responsibility for initiating and setting the basic requirements for all major Defence capital equipment capability proposals.

On an annual basis the Strategy Group (led by Mr Shane Carmody) review the impact of emerging strategic issues and identify the broad strategic priorities for Defence in documents such as Defence Planning Guidance (DPG). The staff in Capability Development Group take this guidance on an annual basis and engage with Defence stakeholders to derive the preferred way to meet the capability goals. This process is called the Defence Capability Update process and takes place over several months. For 2005, this process of looking for gaps in our planned capabilities and making sure the final force mix was right took six months and involved much analysis.

The outcomes of this activity are documented in a classified paper called the Defence Capability Strategy (DCS). An unclassified version of the DCS is likely to be issued by CDF and Secretary in early 2006 and will be called ‘Defence 2015’.

The two key documents, the DPG and the DCS, collectively provide clear advice to Government on the strategic priorities and what capabilities Defence plan s to retain, enhance or discard in order to best meet these priorities.

The final step in the annual capability development cycle is to make sure that the priorities and goals in the DCS are translated into an affordable Defence Capability Plan - the unapproved capital equipment plan. In a fixed capital equipment budget the maths is simple - for every new project or project that is advanced in priority there must be a corresponding project delay or deletion.

Any resultant proposed additions or deletions of specific projects arising from the aforementioned Defence Capability Update process are reviewed by senior Defence committees before they are included in a revised Defence Capability Plan. Any additional cost pressures are also taken into account during this phase to ensure that the resultant Defence Capability Plan is affordable. An updated version of the plan is expected to be released soon after the next strategic update is published – which is currently planned for late 2005.

As such, DMO and the DCG are closely aligned with the DMO using the Defence Capability Plan as a blueprint for all major procurement projects and to map out future projects.

According to Defence Capability Group Chief Lieutenant General David Hurley, DMO and Capability share a symbiotic relationship.

Commencing this month, 24 project manager staff from DMO will be embedded in the four Capability Systems Division environmental branches to work on pre ‑ first pass projects. The DMO staff will provide in situ specialist advice and assistance to the CDG desk officers and their supervisors and facilitate accessing resources and advice from their parent DMO Division.

‘I think that this is a very positive step in reinforcing the fact that CDG and DMO are working the same capability development and acquisition process as a team, acknowledging the different responsibilities,’ Lieutenant General Hurley said.

‘To further improve the process, the next step will be to define the options for the transitioning of staff between CDG and DMO at 2 nd Pass approval. This will be another example of closer ties in the future between the two organisations’.

The shared relationship of DMO and CDG will be guided by the Materiel Acquisition Agreements ( MAAs ). The agreements are not contracts, more like purchasing orders. They reflect a shared understanding of what must be achieved to deliver capability as determined by Government.

Another aspect that will ultimately influence the relationship between the organisations will be the expanded role CDG will take, as required by the Kinnaird Review, in the monitoring of DMO performance post 2nd Pass approval.