Reports about the poor reliability of Foxhound are not surprising. From 2006 to 2008, the MoD watered down the Technical Assurance rules and reduced the Reliability and Maintenance Group by over 100 system design engineers.
Authoring the UOR Coherence Study in 2007, I highlighted the need for good reliability to ensure high availability, prevent equipment failures and reduce the need for spares and maintainers. But there are no short cuts to reliability growth testing as we are now finding in Iraq.