ARMOURED CAVALRY 2025

Rating: Compared to financial year 24/25 Q4, the NISTA/SRO Delivery Confidence Assessment (DCA) rating at 25/26 Q4 decreased to Red. This is primarily due to the following factors. 1. The programme remains on pause following issues identified during Exercise TITAN STORM, which led to a halt in vehicle acceptance and delivery activities from December 2025. 2. The current pause has delayed the completion of the Demonstration phase and it is likely that a re-approval will be required post a Ministerial decision regarding the future of the programme.

Schedule: Compared to financial year 24/25-Q4, the programme's end-date at 25/26-Q4 remains unchanged 31/03/2030. This is primarily due to the following factors. [text ends here in the published file]

Cost: Compared to financial year 24/25-Q4, the project's departmentally agreed Whole Life Cost at 25/26-Q4 (measured in £m) decreased from £7505.71M to £7470.12M This is primarily due to the following factors. 1. There are no significant changes to the budgeted Whole Life Costs of the programme. Due to the bulk of costs linked to the firm price contract with GD, variances presented in-year are related to reprofiling and therefore no overall impact on the programme. 2. The Armoured Cavalry Programme Approved Budgetary Limit has remained unchanged since 2015.

Source: NISTA Major Projects Annual Report 2025-26 (data)

Rating: The Project's Delivery Confidence Assessment rating at 24/25-Q4 is AMBER, compared with the Infrastructure and Projects Authority's assessment last year of AMBER. This is due to the following factors. The programme received an Amber rating at NISTA's 2024 Assurance Review. Although the impact of delays to trials and manufacture has been significant for the programme as a whole, the programme is and has been operating within its approvals since December 2022. Substantial effort has been made between the Army, Delivery Equipment and Support teams (DE and S) and GDLS-UK to maintain a joint and collaborative approach to all decisions and throughout the layers of programme management across organisations.

Schedule: Compared to financial year 23/24-Q4, the project's end-date at 24/25-Q4 increased from 30/04/2025 to 31/03/2030. This is primarily due to the following factors. The jointly agreed, risk adjusted schedule is in place and planned out to Programme Closure (including a task breakdown of the Full Operating Capability milestone). The programme is operating within its current approval.

Cost: Compared to financial year 23/24-Q4, the project's departmentally agreed Whole Life Cost at 24/25-Q4 (measured in £m) increased from 6979 to 7505. This is primarily due to the following factors. The Armoured Cavalry programme's departmental-agreed Whole Life Cost* has increased. This is due to the way the Army forecasts Whole Life Costs. This should not be confused with the Armoured Cavalry Programme Approved Budgetary Limit which remains unchanged since 2015.

Source: NISTA Annual Report 2024-25 (data)

Rating: Compared to financial year 22/23-Q4, the Infrastructure and Project Authority's Delivery Confidence Assessment rating at 23/24-Q4 remained at Amber. This is primarily due to the following factors. The impact of noise and vibration upon the overall programme schedule to Full Operating Capability has been substantial. Significant effort has been made between the Army, DE&S and General Dynamics Land Systems UK (GDLS-UK) to produce a jointly agreed, risk adjusted schedule, which is being progressed to reset programme approvals against increased confidence in deliverability, compliance, and value for money.

Schedule: Compared to financial year 22/23-Q4, the project's end-date at 23/24-Q4 remained scheduled to finish on 2025-04-30. This is primarily due to the following factors. A jointly agreed, risk adjusted reset schedule is in place out to Full Operating Capability; the programme is operating to this pending formal approval of the schedule by the department and HM Treasury.

Cost: Compared to financial year 22/23-Q4, the project's departmental-agree Whole Life Cost at 23/24-Q4 increased from 6854m to 6979m. This is primarily due to the following factors. Most of the cost variances experienced over the past 12 months are re-profiling activity that affect the timing of costs rather than increases/decreases to the Whole Life Cost (WLC) total. For this reason there will have only been minor WLC changes (c.30m). The figure in the Budget WLC field reflects a 10yr budget figure, not the total WLC.

Source: IPA Annual Report 2023-24 (data)