{"id":51720,"date":"2014-12-17T07:30:00","date_gmt":"2014-12-17T07:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=fc96bf6cfe194bdf12211ac8403c7526"},"modified":"2014-12-17T07:30:00","modified_gmt":"2014-12-17T07:30:00","slug":"news-story-140-million-contract-signed-for-sale-of-defence-support-group","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=51720","title":{"rendered":"News story: Defence Support Group sold for \u00a3140 million"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"govspeak\">\n<p>The Defence Support Group (<abbr title=\"Defence Support Group\">DSG<\/abbr>) maintains and repairs key military equipment and manages the storage of the land vehicle fleet. <\/p>\n<p>The deal includes a 10-year contract with Babcock for the maintenance, repair, overhaul and storage of current military vehicles and light weapons.<\/p>\n<p>The contract award follows the announcement of the preferred bidder last month, and will see Babcock continue the services <abbr title=\"Defence Support Group\">DSG<\/abbr> currently provides.<\/p>\n<p>As well as the \u00a3140 million that the sale will generate upfront, the Army will also benefit from considerable savings over the next 10 years, seeing a transformation in the way its vehicles such as Challengers and Warriors are maintained. <\/p>\n<figure class=\"image embedded\">\n<div class=\"img\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"A Challenger 2 main battle tank\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.digital.cabinet-office.gov.uk\/government\/uploads\/system\/uploads\/image_data\/file\/34557\/DSG1.jpeg\"><\/div><figcaption>A Challenger 2 main battle tank during a live firing exercise in Grafenw\u00f6hr, Germany (library image) [Picture: Corporal Wes Calder RLC, Crown copyright]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Minister for Defence Equipment, Support and Technology Philip Dunne MP said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>I am delighted with the successful outcome of this transaction. Signing this deal with Babcock will put the <a rel=\"external\" href=\"http:\/\/www.dsg.mod.uk\/\">Defence Support Group<\/a> on a sustainable long-term footing and will transform the equipment maintenance and repair support that the Army relies on both at home and overseas.<\/p>\n<p>Babcock will provide market-leading engineering and fleet management expertise to optimise vehicle availability to the Army at better value for the taxpayer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"last-child\">The \u00a3140 million proceeds from the sale and the significant savings over the life of the contract represent outstanding value for money for the tax payer and will allow us to continue to focus our resources on the front line.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Contract completion is planned for 31 March 2015 and the service provision contract will start on 1 April 2015.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Ministry of Defence has signed a contract for \u00a3140 million with Babcock International for the sale of Defence Support Group.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51720"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=51720"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51720\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51726,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51720\/revisions\/51726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=51720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=51720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=51720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}