NEW STYLE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY DEPLOYED

Information and Communications Technology (ICT)

Record date: 31 March 2026

Whole-life cost: £1.6bn
Published schedule: 01/04/2015 – 31/03/2029
NISTA delivery confidence: RED
Senior responsible owner: Jason Gnaneswaran

What the project is for

The Programme aims to deliver a MOD-owned, highly secure, technologically advanced and evolutionary communications and information service that connects war-fighters and enables information advantage across the operational landscape. It will provide operational commanders in the Maritime and Land environments with a modern enduring mission configurable command and control IT system that will deliver the operational services that they require at OFFICIAL, SECRET and Mission SECRET classifications. The in-house delivery of this new system known as OpNET will replace multiple deployable IT systems and will allow the MOD to extract itself from expensive monolithic support contracts.

Departmental delivery commentary

Compared to financial year 24/25 Q4, the NISTA/SRO Delivery Confidence Assessment (DCA) rating at 25/26 Q4 remained at Red. This is primarily due to the following factors. 1. The programme is currently operating 12 months behind schedule in delivering capability to the Maritime and Land sectors. 2. The delays stem from overly optimistic planning assumptions, ongoing resource and funding constraints, all of which have contributed to increased costs. 3. Delivery to the Land environment is now largely complete, with transition from legacy systems to OpNET expected by end of May 2026. 4. Maritime delivery has gained momentum, however, installation timelines remain constrained by vessel availability. 5. The programme is currently being reset with a reduced scope to ensure it can deliver within budget.

Schedule

Compared to financial year 24/25-Q4, the programmes end-date at 25/26-Q4 increased from 31/03/2029 to 30/04/2030. This is primarily due to the following factors. 1. Delays in delivery and the availability of Navy platforms for OpNET to be installed.

Cost

Compared to financial year 24/25-Q4, the project's departmentally agreed Whole Life Cost at 25/26-Q4 (measured in £m) remained at £1399M.

Benefits

Compared to financial year 24/25-Q4, the project's departmental-agreed monetised benefits at 25/26-Q4 remained at 0m