Effective use of resources

The defence sector spends large sums each year on, among other things, purchasing weapons systems, training soldiers, building barracks and maintaining materiel. How can tax payers and the Chief of Defence know that this is being carried out in the most efficient and sound manner? And to what extent could the Chief of Defence have improved defence capabilities from the budget?

The objective is to assist the sector in achieving the greatest possible defence capabilities from the defence budget. This is achieved when each individual agency is efficient and when funds are allocated to prioritised operational activities.

In this project, we are studying how the budget is spent and how to improve and streamline the defence sector. We evaluate efficiency and advise on how the agencies can increase their cost effectiveness.

In order to advise, we conduct two types of studies: area studies and sector studies.
An area study explores a central area of operations in depth, and studies resource use with the aid of all available data sources. Examples of such area studies include:

• materiel investments
• management of real estate and construction
• investments in real estate and construction
• personnel management or military force production

With such targeted analyses that are made in cooperation with the involved expert communities, we are able to identify room for improvement and estimate potential benefits.
When we conduct cross-sectoral studies, we analyse topics across agencies and areas of operation. Examples of this include:

• evaluations of previously implemented efforts to improve efficiency
• strategic advice on how the Ministry of Defence and individual agencies can organise their work on improvement and streamlining
• studies of incentive structures in the sector
• studies of cost developments in the sector

Through its work in this project, FFI serves as the Ministry of Defence’s strategic adviser on adaptation of streamlining efforts in the sector and as an adviser on how the various areas of operation can be adapted to ensure efficient use of resources. In 2019, we have identified cost-efficiency measures that free up more than NOK 1 billion for prioritised activities in the Armed Forces.