A GROUND-BREAKING contract to bring high-tech information systems to the British armed forces is running a year late.

The CIP (Combat Infrastructure Platform) project, which is being run by the American contractor General Dynamics (GD), was to have entered service in December this year but has been delayed until December next year. It is unlikely to be declared fully ready for operations until 2007.

The contract is a £300m add-on to the controversial Bowman radio programme, scooped up by GD in 2001 after a similar project led by BAE Systems collapsed in acrimony as costs spiralled past £4 billion. GD won the contract for £1.7 billion.

CIP is a key part of the Ministry of Defence’s plan for “network-enabled” forces, which will use the latest communications equipment to rapidly share information. The Bowman radio system is designed to allow secure digital communications and the creation of wireless networks, and will allow troops and officers to send e-mails, identify each others’ positions, and exchange information about enemy positions.

The delays were revealed last week by GD executives. Andrew Browne, the vice- president in charge of the Bowman programme, said field trials had shown that the CIP software was “not reliable and robust enough”. The MoD had originally planned to develop CIP in step with Bowman, but this had not been possible. “We did not have time to test it properly,” said Browne.

GD was in discussions with the MoD over a revised timetable for the programme, a plan that was likely to be approved at a meeting of the ministry’s top-level Investment Approvals Board in September. An MoD spokesman said: “Progress continues to be made on CIP. There has been no decision made on an in-service date.”

GD said Bowman, which will replace the obsolete Clansman radio, was progressing well and had met its in-service requirements. But it acknowledged that the early deployment of the trial battalion, 7th Armoured, to Iraq had caused problems. The battalion’s Challenger and Warrior armoured vehicles have not been able to use Bowman because of interference with the vehicles’ internal intercoms. A software patch to solve the problem has been developed.

Installation of Bowman radios is running behind schedule because of unforeseen problems in fitting the equipment to British army vehicles, some of which are nearly 40 years old and have been heavily modified in their service lives. “We underestimated the task. It was far more complex than we thought,” said Browne.

GD has hired 50 more fitters to do the conversions, which are taking place at Ashchurch, Gloucestershire, and the programme is expected to be completed in 2008. Defence analysts said the delays were not surprising given the ambitious timescale of the programme and the tight budget.