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The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Valley of Death

Gabrielle Brooks

Created on October 7, 2025

A primer for defence technology start-ups and SMEs looking to understand the UK defence innovation procurement landscape

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Department for Science, Technology & Innovation

Cabinet Office

Home Office

Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office

Department forBusiness & Trade

deftech_valley_of_death//2025.11//open_beta

Mt MOD

Defence Nuclear Organisation

Military Strategic Headquarters

Cyber & SpecialistOperations Command

Britsh Army

Royal Navy

RAF

Space Command

Army Projects & Programmes

CSOC Projects & Programmes

Navy Projects & Programmes

RAF Projects & Programmes

Army Innovation

CSOC Innovation

NATO

Navy Innovation

RAF Innovation

Options & Commissioning

Corporate & Shared Services

Commercial & Industry

European Commision

NATO DIANA

Defence Support

Int. Collaboration & Exports

National Armaments Director (Group)

Defence Infrastructure Organisation

Defence Digital

Dstl

Ploughshare

Crown Commercial Service

UK Defence Innovation

DE&S

Commercial X

Office for Small Business Growth

FCI

UKDI DASA

BattleLab

Centres of Excellence

Accelerators

MOD Strategic Partners

Mid-tier suppliers

DefTech start-ups & SMEs

Investors

<START>

Department for Science, Technology & Innovation

Cabinet Office

Home Office

Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office

Department forBusiness & Trade

deftech_valley_of_death//2025.11//open_beta

About

National Security Secretariat

Advanced Research & Innovation Agency [ARIA]

Homeland Security Group

Secret Intelligence Service [MI6]

UK Defence & Security Exports

Mt MOD

Resilience Directorate

GCHQ

The Security Service [MI5]

UK Space Agency

UK Integrated Security Fund

HMGCC

Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre

UK Research & Innovation

Leadership

National Cyber Security Centre

National Protective SecurityAuthority

National Security Online Information Team

Governance

UK NACE

Defence Futures

Joint State Terrorism Threats

OCSM

Defence Nuclear Organisation

National Security Strategic Investment Fund

Innovation & Research InSight Unit

Joint Security & Resilience Centre

Info Threats & Influence Dir.

Accelerated Capability Environment [ACE]

About

AWE Nuclear Security Technologies

National Crime Agency

Counter Terrorism Policing

Submarine Delivery Agency

ProtectUK

Military Strategic Headquarters

About

Futures & Force Design

Cyber & SpecialistOperations Command

Britsh Army

Royal Navy

RAF

About

Leadership

About

Leadership

Space Command

National Cyber Force

Leadership

Defence Intelligence

Royal Marines

NCGI

UK Hydrographic Office

About

Integration Design Authority

SKYNET

NSpOC

Army Projects & Programmes

CSOC Projects & Programmes

Navy Projects & Programmes

RAF Projects & Programmes

ASGARD

Digital Targeting Web

THEIA

Picasso

CABOT

MERCURY

NEXUS / RAVEN

STRIKE NET

ACTS

TEMPEST

DARE

Land ISTAR

AACP

FASTER

WAVELL

Combat ISTAR

NELSON

CORVUS

VANQUISH

LACP

BEEHIVE

NIGHTFALL

ZODIAC

Army Innovation

CSOC Innovation

NATO

Navy Innovation

RAF Innovation

Army Futures

jHub Defence

About

ARIEL

Defence AI Centre

NATO ACO

Disruptive Capabilities &Technologies Office

Development & Testing

Defence Modelling &Simulation Office

NATO ACT

Rapid Capabilities Office

Rapstone

NATO OPEX

Development & Testing

Navy Develop

Centre for Intelligence Innovation

Army Warfighting Experiment

NATO Support & Procurement Agency

RAF X

MarWorks

Defence Cyber Marvel

ASTRA

London Tech Bridge

Centres of Excellence

Options & Commissioning

Joint Counter-UAS Office

About

Corporate & Shared Services

Commercial & Industry

Oil & Pipelines Agency

About

Single Source Regulations Office

European Commision

NATO DIANA

Defence Support

Int. Collaboration & Exports

UK Defence & Security Exports

DG for Defence Industry & Space

About

National Armaments Director (Group)

Defence Infrastructure Organisation

NATO Innovation Hub

European Defence Fund

Defence Digital

NATO DIANA Challenge Portal

About

Defence Industrial Joint Council

Dstl

Ploughshare

Defence DigitalCommercial

Crown Commercial Service

DIAG

Defence TechScaler

Programmes & Projects

UK Defence Innovation

About

DE&S

Commercial X

About

Ploughshare Accelerator Fund

HMGCC Co-Creation

Office for Small Business Growth

About

DOS framework

R-Cloud

About

Deca

Rapid Innovation Team

TCS framework

SME Searchlight

Dynamic Market

EDP

Defence Supplier Capability Programme

Cyber Security Service 3

Neutral VendorFramework for Innovation

HTCD Framework

Tech Products & AS

DDAD Framework

About

FCI

Technology Services 3

Storm Framework

About

Cloud Compute 2

UKDI DASA

Digital & IT Pro Services

Network Services 3

About

BattleLab

Big Data & Analytics

PROGENY framework

Spark DPS

About

ASTRID framework

Drones & Assoc. Services

Centres of Excellence

Weapons Sector Reserach Framework

S-E&G Services DPS

CoE in Defence, Risk & Resilience

Automation Marketplace

Defence TechnologyExploitation Programme

Space Technology Solutions

Defence AI Centre

Accelerators

Dynamic Markets

Themed competitions

National Drone Hub

G-Cloud

Open Call forInnovation

Defence Wargaming Centre

Explore

esourcing tool

MOD Strategic Partners

Defence Availability Centre

Ideas Marketplace

Regional Innovation Partners

Defence Materials CoE

Explore

Test & Evaluation Innovation Gateway

Mid-tier suppliers

Defence Standardisation

Explore

T&E Marketplace

Digital Engineering Centre

DefTech start-ups & SMEs

BattleLab Co-Collaboration

Corporate finance

Feedback

UK Defence Solutions Centre

Trade associations

Engineering

Defence Sourcing Portal

Why is it free?

Strategic semiconductors

C4ISR

Quantum & cryptography

Regional Security Clusters

Operations

Central Digital Platform

Why a landscape?

Missile Defence Centre

Weapons / Defence systems

Artificial Intelligence

Naval & maritime

Legal

MOD / industry interfaces

Contracts Finder

Why we made it

Investors

Training & simulation

UxVs

Materials & manufacturing

Commercial

Alliances & networks

Helios SME Portal

Who it's for

Space & satellite

Robotics

Sensing & sensors

Clearances, regs &compliance

Explore

Creative

Events

Think Tanks

Library

MOD Acquisition Pipline

What this is

Cybersecurity

Service providers / infra

Information integrity

Things to see

Things to read

Help & advice

Things to join

Things to monitor

Things to do

<START>

"THEIA (“THAY-A”) is driving digital transformation in the British Army so we will outcompete our adversaries, integrate with our partners and operate with maximum efficiency. THEIA is about how we use digitised information and digital technologies to improve operational and business decision-making across Army functions THEIA’s objectives are to: change digital culture and behaviours, equipping our people with digital skills and promoting new digital ways of working integrate all information from command and control, intelligence, sensors, effectors and platforms across domains, partners and allies deliver better data and enable better operational and corporate competitiveness, efficiency and effectiveness."

Source

See also

Video: What is DASA?

"The London Tech Bridge is a collaboration between the U.S. Navy (USN) and Royal Navy (RN) to foster connectivity, agility and innovation under the broader ambition of Delivering Combined Seapower. It supports dialogue, joint investment and cooperative development between two navies as they endeavor to advance from Interoperability to Interchangeability. Set in Central London’s booming technology ecosystem spanning academia, industry and government, it is ideally positioned to harness technology faster for Sailors and Marines. The London Tech Bridge serves as a vital link between the U.S. Department of the Navy (DoN) and the U.K.'s cutting-edge technology ecosystem. It sits at the intersection of the Office of Naval Research Global and NavalX, the Navy’s innovation accelerator. It leverages the broader NavalX Tech Bridge network to help address critical challenges facing the DoN, the RN and the U.K. Ministry of Defence (MoD). The London Tech Bridge achieves this by forging a strategic network of academia, industry and government to develop innovative solutions. Leveraging the historic partnership between the U.S. and the U.K., our unique two-way flow enables seamless connections and knowledge sharing on both sides of the Atlantic. By strengthening the bonds between our nations, the London Tech Bridge enhances the interoperability and interchangeability of our Naval and Defense Services, ensuring a more secure and collaborative future. To achieve these goals, we are uniting industry and Naval resources on technology solutions in these key areas:

Autonomy and Human-Machine Teaming
Maintenance and Sustainment
Integrated Decision Making and Communications Workforce of the Future
Immersive Technology"

Source

"We are HMGCC, the engineering specialists at the heart of the UK’s national security. We work with the national security community, UK government, academia, private sector partners and international allies to bring engineering ingenuity to the national security mission, creating tools and technologies that drive us ahead and help to protect the nation. We solve uniquely difficult problems in novel and bespoke ways, creating tools, technologies and capabilities that bring the UK hidden advantage. We engineer for the most unpredictable and demanding environments and unlock opportunity for our national security partners by concealing future technological capability in the present. We’re based at Hanslope Park near Milton Keynes, 40 minutes from London by train and in the heart of the Oxford-Cambridge arc – the UK’s growing research, innovation and technology hub. Our campus brings together creative spaces, labs, workshops and specialist manufacturing facilities to help us conceive, design and deliver the tools and technologies required for our national security." See also: HMGCC Co-Creation (under Dstl)

Source

Buy technology products, software and services to meet all your technology needs including (but not limited to):

end user devices: such as laptops, desktops, mobiles, and tablets
technology infrastructure: such as servers, storage, backup, data centres equipment, network hardware, hubs, routers, and switches
services including: installation such as data moves, changes, logistics support, product asset management, product and end user support, tech guidance and training
consumables: such as cabling, connectors, data storage and memory sticks
peripheral equipment: such as keyboards, mouse, screens, monitors and audio visual equipment
commercial off the shelf (COTS) software which is commercially ready-made and available for sale, ‘as a service’, lease, or licence and is generally sourced from resellers (for example, Microsoft, VMware, Google, Oracle, ServiceNow, antivirus software and adobe)

Source

"Provides strategic leadership across the full range of Ministry of Defence (MOD) acquisition, procurement and commercial activities. Director Commercial (DC) is the MOD’s Commercial Process Owner and is responsible for the future direction and development of industrial strategy and the department’s commercial relationships with industry; providing the commercial policy and process framework, functional standards and tools for achieving commercial value for money across defence and providing professional leadership of commercial staff across MOD. Director Commercial also leads the operational commercial service for Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S) projects, providing advice, experience and support to senior commercial managers and Programme Teams residing in the DE&S Operating Centres. - Commercial Systems - provides comprehensive commercial policy advice and guidance that translates strategy/policy into tools to do business - Commercial Capability - develops a professional skills framework for commercial practitioners and undertakes strategic manpower planning for the community - Commercial Process and Governance (CPaG) - driving consistency, efficiency, economy and continuous improvement in commercial processes - Cost Assurance and Analysis Service (CAAS) - exists as the MOD’s centre of excellence for pricing and costing support to the Acquisition Community, enabling continuous improvement of the acquisition process, risk reduction, and ensuring ‘Best Value for Money’ for Defence - Commercial Project Enablement Team (CPET) - provides a comprehensive commercial ‘tool kit’ supplying advice; planning; tools; processes and best practice to teams - Supplier Relations Team (SRT) - exists to develop robust strategic relationships with the MOD’s key suppliers to improve coherency, performance and decision-making"

Source

1 Dec 2025: 'The National Armaments Director (NAD) Group has appointed Jim Carter as permanent Director General for Commercial and Industry (C&I) following an external competition. In this post Jim will lead on the Defence Industrial Strategy (DIS), and the transformation of the NAD Group’s Commercial & Industry area, improving industry collaboration, cutting contract times, and delivering rapid development. He leads a team of more than 2,500, across one of government’s most complex procurement environments. Specifically, his role as Champion for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) will drive vital changes across the MOD, levelling the playing field and increasing opportunities for small businesses to thrive in the defence sector.

Source

Helsing Stanhope AI Comand AI LatticeFlow Greyscale AI Preligens Hala Systems Blackshark Arondite Labelfuse Advai Materials Nexus Neurobus GScan Mission Decisions Scaleout System Unbound Autonomy

AI Score Tytan Egregious Buntar OCCAM Industries GIGA Venture Ask for the Moon DefSecIntel Sky Engine Archangel Faculty Swarmer Orbotix Cosimmetry Delfox Mind Foundry Envitia

Enables you to access professional service requirements and recruit digital and IT resource. Available for MOD customers only. Lot 1: Solution, Enterprise & Tech Architecture, Data, Innovation Tech Assurance & KIM Lot 2: Dev, Apps, UX, Dev Ops, Sys Design & App Support Lot 3: Cyber Security, Crypto, Sec Ops & Integrated systems Lot 4: Infrastructure Data Centre, Hardware engineers & Telecoms Lot 5: Project, Programme and Portfolio Management (P3M) Lot 6: Intelligence Solutions

Source

Lockheed Martin
KBR
Airbus
Boeing
Serco
Capita
BAE Systems
General Dynamics
Leidos
Leonardo
MBDA
QinetiQ
Babcock
Raytheon

Red Branch Strategy. Emma Wilkinson's consultancy bridges the gap between traditional law firm services and the practical, on-demand insight of an in-house legal team. A specialist in defence and defence technology, she'll advise on – and help with – everything from teaming agreements and commercial contracts to bid compliance and risk management in defence contracting.

Fresh Eyes Consulting. Ben Copperwheat draws on the best part of a decade of working in defence for the large primes to provide consultancy and contracting services — ranging from systems-engineering to programme rescue – for start-ups and SMEs as well as tier 1 suppliers

"DMSO was established in 2022 as a result of an Integrated Review (IR) option, its role is to operate as a cohering force for M&S across Defence. The DMSO Vision is defined as: “Maximum M&S capability Pan-Defence through interoperability and exploitation of investment.” DMSO Strategic Goals: Goal 1: SQEP. Getting the right people with the right skills in the right places. Giving Defence the ability to act as an Intelligent Customer and maximise the effectiveness and cost-efficiency of M&S capabilities. Goal 2: M&S Policy. Clear direction with appropriate advice and guidance. Goal 3: Provide Common M&S Enabling Services. The provision of Defence-wide common M&S tools and services, where prudent. Goal 4: M&S Technical Coherence. Follow a common technical approach. Goal 5: Effective Governance. Experience shows reliance on guidance alone is not sufficient to ensure the coherence sought is realised. Goal 6: Outreach & Engagement. Learning from others and sharing our experiences DMSO consists of the following elements: The Technical Authority (TA). The TA is primarily responsible for promoting technical coherence of M&S across Defence and with Allies with a particular focus on re-use, interoperability, and provision of impartial technical M&S advice. To meet this aim, it includes the following:i) The Defence Simulation Centre (DSC). The DSC is the front door for all M&S Enquiries. It acts as a hub to enable exploitation, management, and interoperability through the sharing and re-use of M&S resources. It is located within the Defence College for Military Capability Integration (DCMCI) at the Defence Academy.ii) The Technical Authority Support Team (TAST). The TAST provides impartial specialist M&S advice and guidance to all Defence. TAST supports the delivery of M&S Assess and Assure (A&A) duties set out in JSP 939.Programmes. Responsible for the successful provision of Defencewide M&S enabler Pgs being delivered by DMSO."

Source

"We are SIS, the UK’s Secret Intelligence Service, better known as MI6. We are the UK's foreign intelligence service, gathering intelligence and working with partners internationally to protect the UK's interests, values and security overseas, and achieving economic, diplomatic and technological advantage for His Majesty's Government (HMG). Our mission is to collect foreign intelligence in support of the UK’s national security and economic well-being, and to prevent serious crime. We are accountable to the government under the responsibility of the Foreign Secretary, and our goal is to provide intelligence and effects that meet government requirements and deliver impact for His Majesty’s Government. We work with agents and partners around the globe to collect foreign intelligence through our operations to:

Understand the threats to and opportunities for the UK and UK interests overseas;
Disrupt the activity of hostile states;
Detect and prevent terrorist and cyber attacks"

Source

In their own words The National Cyber Force (NCF) is a partnership between defence and intelligence. It is responsible for operating in and through cyberspace to counter threats, disrupting and contesting those who would do harm to the UK and its allies, to keep the country safe and to protect and promote the UK’s interests at home and abroad. In addition to GCHQ and the Ministry of Defence, the Secret Intelligence Service and the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory are core partners bringing cutting edge espionage and research techniques. Accountability for NCF’s activities is held jointly by the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs and the Secretary of State for Defence. See also: Dstl, SIS, GCHQ

Source

Champion: act as a visionary hub, accelerating the coherent understanding, development and use of AI capabilities.
Enable: provide common AI services, good practice and a critical mass of expertise to support local adoption.
Innovate: rapidly develop, deliver and scale AI projects that generate breakthroughs in strategic advantage in support of Defence priorities.

Our work stretches from the back office to the frontline:

helping enhance the speed and efficiency of business processes and support functions
increasing the quality of decision-making and tempo of operations
improving the security and resilience of inter-connected networks
enhancing the mass, persistence, reach and effectiveness of our military forces
protecting our people from harm by automating ‘dull, dirty and dangerous’ tasks

The DAIC works collaboratively across Defence as a federated organisation, supported by a core team from:

Defence Digital (Digital Foundry), as part of Strategic Command
Defence Equipment & Support (Future Capability Group)
Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Cyber Information System Division)"

Source

We are the National Technical Authority for physical and personnel security. As part of the Security Service, MI5, we make the UK more resilient to terrorism and state threats.

Source

The Missile Defence Centre is part of Defence Science and Technology within the Ministry of Defence. It was established in 2003 as a government-industry partnership to understand the issues and opportunities relating to Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD). Since that time, its remit has expanded from traditional ballistic missile threats to include consideration of manoeuvring and hypersonic threats. The activities of the MDC, supported by an underpinning research programme, ensure the provision of evidence to decision makers, collaboration on projects of mutual interest with international partners, and sustainment of elements of national expertise. UK MDC Organisation The UK MDC is separated into the following 6 themes: - Scenario Assessment and Wargaming – provides education on missile threats and defensive options and raises awareness of related issues within defence and also across government - Sensors and Architectures – conducts research into current and novel sensing methods - Threat Characterisation – explores how the threat is evolving and how it might evolve in the future - Threat Reduction and Lethality – focusses on the final few seconds of an interceptor engagement with a threat - Maritime BMD – explores opportunities for current and planned UK maritime capabilities to support BMD - Novel Technology – explores the application of novel and emerging technology to all aspects of missile defence

Source

"Fully integrated with the Royal Navy’s amphibious ships, our Royal Marines can be deployed globally without host nation support - and projected stealthily from the sea to conduct operations on land." Commando Brigade 29 Commando Royal Artillery: The amphibious troops of 29 Commando are masters of warfare in extreme environments. Find out more about the history, role and personnel of 29 Commando here. 30 Commando IX Group: 30 Commando Information Exploitation Group formed in the darkest days of the Second World War and serves today as the ‘eyes and ears’ of 3 Commando Brigade. 40 Commando: The amphibious troops of 40 Commando are masters of warfare in extreme environments. 42 Commando: 42 Commando Royal Marines are one of three elite battalion sized units which make up the global punch of 3 Commando Brigade. 43 Commando: 43 Commando Fleet Protection Group Royal Marines are an elite force based at Faslane, home of the UK’s strategic nuclear deterrent. 45 Commando: The Royal Marines of 45 Commando wear their Green Berets with pride. Find out more about the history, role and skills of this elite amphibious force here. 47 Commando: 47 Commando (Raiding Group) are the Royal Navy’s experts in amphibious warfare, providing landing craft, amphibious assault and training. 539 Raiding Squadron: The elite troops of 539 Raiding Squadron use landing craft and amphibious vehicles to deliver their fellow Royal Marines to land. Commando Engineers: These highly skilled engineers provide vital support to 3 Commando Brigade Royal Marines. Commando Logistics Regiment: Commando Logistic Regiment is unique in the Armed Forces for its eclectic mix of personnel, drawn from across the military disciplines. Viking Squadron: As part of Commando Logistics Regiment, Viking Squadron are 3 Commando Brigade’s experts in Protected Mobility. Operating the formidable, highly mobile Viking All-Terrain Vehicle (Protected), they support the Lead Commando Group both on land and at sea."

Source

"Conflict and disasters afflict some of the most vulnerable populations on earth, and wreak havoc on societies. Prevention, and timely and effective responses are necessary to save lives and preserve infrastructure, and to promote socio-economic recovery and build resilience. Our research focuses on drivers of these risks, whilst our education activities prepare professionals and organisations to better respond and promote resilience, seeking solutions with governmental and non-governmental organisations, and with commercial and military collaborators. The scale of disaster response frequently requires the coordination of military and civil expertise. Within the synergistic fields of defence, risk and resilience the University of Portsmouth has a world class profile, with research expertise in key areas such as global governance, geopolitical conflicts, risk mapping and monitoring, peace, security and deterrence, AI and autonomy, ethics, risk management, disaster response, and organisational and community resilience. CEDRR incorporates our expertise in these fields into one Centre of Excellence, providing a focal point, coordination, and an incubator for future initiatives. CEDRR can offer:

Access to degree programmes and bespoke training courses
Support for new product development and innovation
Trials and testing support and advice
Reviews and assessments
Collaboration in research and innovation projects with access to world-leading experts in their fields
Support for business growth, management and leadership training
Consultancy services"

Source

"The Defence Science and Technology Portfolio is a series of programmes and standalone projects designed to meet the Ministry of Defence (MOD) capability needs and to ensure the UK armed forces remain at the cutting edge of technology. Predominantly, the programmes and projects will be delivered by the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), but partners in industry and academia will be crucial to delivery with significant funding available and opportunities to collaborate."

Source

Dstl Programmes

Advanced Materials
AI
Air Systems
Autonomy
Chemical, Biological & Radiological Defence Communications & Networks
Crime & Policing
Cyber Security
Defence Science & Technology Futures
Deterrent & Submarine Systems
Electromagnetic Activities
Future Kinetic Effects & Weapons
Future Sensing
Future Workforce & Training
High level decision support
Human Performance & Protection
Hypersonics
Influence & Command
Lands Systems
Maritime Systems
Missile Defence
Security Systems
Space Systems
Specialist Systems
Support & Sustainability

Dstl Projects

Engineering Biology
Human Augmentation
PULSAR
Support to Operations & Crises

See also

Policy paper

"The BattleLab Co-Collaboration Space is a dedicated online platform within Defence Ideas, designed to facilitate collaboration with external parties."

Source

"We nurture a thriving space ecosystem – a network of investors, scientists, engineers, academia and research labs – and a sector that generates an annual income of £18.9 billion and employs 52,000 people across the country. Our staff include scientists, engineers, commercial experts, project managers and policy officials who:

catalyse investment to advance space-based technology and maximise UK space sector growth
deliver missions and capabilities that responsibly meet national needs and advance our understanding of the Universe
champion the power of space to inspire people, offer greener, smarter solutions and support a sustainable future

To achieve the greatest impact, we focus most of our resource behind eight delivery Priorities. These are:

launch: supporting satellite launch services from UK spaceports
sustainability: taking a leading role in keeping space safe and accessible now and in the future
discovery: supporting space science and exploration missions
innovation: investing in bold new technologies
levelling-up: boosting space investment and jobs across the country
Earth observation: studying our planet to drive discovery and tackle climate change
low-Earth orbit: delivering vital everyday satellite services
inspiration: inspiring new space customers, investors and the next generation"

Source

Common Mission Project London Tech Bridge (RN/US Navy) Startup Coalition CETaS CyNam Plexal Future Forces D3iP Defence Suppliers Forum Executive Group Defence Single Source Advisory Group APPG for Defence Cyber Threat Alliance Innovate UK Contracts for Innovation (formerly SBRI) Single Source Advisory Team Defence Growth Partnership UK in NATO Forum (ADS) AUKUS Advanced Capability Forum Janus Allies Women in Defence APPG

Commercial X will bring new technologies to users faster. It will speed up delivery and ensure that front line forces have the technology they need to meet changing requirements. Commercial X will also expand delivered technology across Defence and make it part of the MOD’s new Digital backbone. Commercial X officers:

use new freedoms and a different approach to risk to create innovative commercial approaches
develop alternative routes to market and encourage approaches from small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs)
share best practice

Source

‘See also:

Commercial X: A new approach to defence procurement? (article)

What is Commercial X (video)

"The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who can’t.” Mark Twain, attrib.

Advantage Through Innovation: The Defence Innovation Initiative

Royal Navy Digital and Data Plan 2022-2025

British Army Challenge Set 2025

Spending Review 2025

Defence AI Strategy

Strategic Defence Review 2025

Defence Digital (Commercial) The Shop Window for Innovation

Technology Adoption Review 2025

Defence Industrial Strategy

The UK's Modern Industrial Strategy

Defence Investment Plan 2025

UK Government Resilience Framework

Defence Reform Act

UK National Security Strategy 2025

Dstl Biscuit Books

Defence & Security Innovation Signposting

How Defence Works

Integrated Operating Concept

MOD Digital Commercial Strategic Roadmap

MOD Major Projects Portfolio

MOD Enduring Capability Challenges

MOD Science & Technology Portfolio

MOD Science & Technology Strategy

NATO AI Strategy

RAF Autonomous Collaborative Platform Strategy

About HMG/MOD Procurement:

Bid Writing Support for SMEs

Defence Contract Bidding (DCI)

Defence Digital Commercial

How to buy through Crown Commercial Service

How to sell to or work with Dstl

Information and guidance for suppliers

Procurement at MOD

SMEs: A guide to working with government

The UK's Defence Procurement System Explained (DCI)

Trying to enter the defence industrial base? Here's four steps to follow (US-focused but relevant)

What is a framework – procurement essentials

While it's got a US focus, J.D. Englehart's NatSecTech Canon is great. Oh, and don't forget to keep a beady eye on wavellroom.com

"We provide investment and support for researchers and businesses. We help our researchers develop new skills, enabling them to further their careers. We enable collaboration and engagement across and beyond our communities, involving the wider public. We improve the capabilities across the research system, within the UK and internationally, developing world-class infrastructure and supporting an inclusive and ethical research culture."

Source

"The Defence Wargaming Centre (DWC) is the UK’s analytical wargaming centre of excellence and part of the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl). It helps meet the increasing demand for wargaming as a tool to support decisions and to develop insights into the complex issues facing UK defence and security now and in the future. We run wargames for customers across UK defence and security, from the frontline armed forces to the Cabinet Office. We also work with partners across other government departments, industry and academia. The DWC brings together expertise and experience from across Dstl to help design, deliver and analyse wargames. Our specialist work includes:

force effectiveness wargaming and simulation
strategic gaming and historical analysis
tactical wargaming and simulation
wargaming advice, research and design

Our physical infrastructure can be configured to deliver a wide variety of wargames of different types and sizes for a range of purposes. Our teams have experience in delivering manual, computerised and hybrid wargames, all designed to suit the analytical requirements of our customers. The DWC is also the focus for research into wargaming methods, tools and techniques used by Dstl and our partners. As part of this the DWC has developed the Wargaming Accelerated Skills Programme (WASP) to improve and grow Dstl’s wargaming capability. The DWC is situated in Dstl’s Portsdown West campus. Email: Wargaming@Dstl.gov.uk. We regularly send speakers to conferences on analysis and wargaming - contact us through our email address if you’d like to invite us to an event. Suppliers who are interested in working with us can get in touch with us through the ASTRID framework."

Source

The Defence Availability Centre, one of three Defence Capability Centres hosted by DE&S15, became fully operational in March 2025. It is able to present a global view of availability challenges and can provide higher quality data to drive collaborative problem-solving, better informed decision-making and improve overall platform readiness

Source

We’d love to hear what you make of this. But more specifically, we’d like to know:

What’s missing (and where do we go to find out about it)?
What’s objectively inaccurate? (What, for example, is out of date? Which programmes or teams are in the wrong place?)
What - subjectively - do you think we’ve got wrong? How would you adjust the layout or amend the content?
What would you do (or do differently) to make this more useful to a DefTech founder? And what would you do to make it more usable?

You'll find a feedback form here.

Please bear in mind that we are, to put it mildly, not software engineers and that the tool we’re using (Genially) is pretty limited in its functionality.

"We help UK defence, cyber and physical security companies to export, and help overseas defence companies invest in the UK. We provide specialist export advice and practical assistance. We work closely with industry and government departments including the Ministry of Defence, the Home Office and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office as well as government agencies UK Export Finance and Export Control Joint Unit. Our help includes:

sharing specialist export advice and intelligence with UK industry across land, maritime, aerospace, cyber and security
supporting and showcasing UK industry at domestic and overseas events, including major UK exhibitions
coordinating HM Government support for export and investment opportunities
facilitating government-to-government partnerships
building strong relationships with overseas governments and other stakeholders to maintain or raise awareness of UK industry capabilities in established and developing markets"

See also

Supplier esourcing guidance

Applecoe Studio. Graphic design, motion graphics and video. We've been working with Andy Applecoe for 7 years. Whether it's a whole visual identity for your brand, decks and docs for your commercial team, or a technical illustration or demo video for your website, he's The Fella.

Jambi Digital. Rob Morrisby works with creative agencies and designers from across the UK to deliver next-level WordPress websites. He built inink's site (in collaboration with Ellis James). Like everyone we recommend, he's both an expert and a pleasure to work with.

End State is a creative agency that specialises in the production of commercial video and photo content tailored to the Defence and Security sectors. As a full-service agency, the End State team handle every aspect of a project from ideation to completion: they provide crew and equipment, and source everything from serving or veteran actors to clothing and weapons. If you need a film and you need it done right, given them a call.

The Naval Strike Network (now Strike Net) programme was launched in 2022 with a remit to deliver the common data standards and architecture to enable rapid and effective integration of uncrewed assets e.g. UAVs into the maritime deployed domain where operations are often as part of a multi-national force. In 2024 the programme's remit expanded to include the communications and software architecture to enable effective integration and delivery of effect across crewed and uncrewed platforms in a hybrid multi-national environment. As such Strike Net is at the heart of many future capabilities that are being developed in multiple operating domains. Designed for deployed operations in a contested and congested environment it has three main capability themes: - Communications bearers and management. - Peer to peer data sharing to enable third party exploitation. - Uncrewed Vehicle integration.

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What We Do The UK Defence Solutions Centre (UKDSC) reaches into the broad UK value chain; from the largest defence prime contractors through to the highly innovative SMEs, to increase the connection between customers and UK Industry. By promoting collaboration between these companies, the best of UK capability can be harnessed to deliver solutions that meet UK and overseas customers’ needs. It works in the pre-competitive phase, allowing closer collaboration with both customers and industry. UKDSC Vision To be recognised as a trusted and impartial centre of defence expertise in the pre-competitive phase, displaying innovation to help shape and satisfy customers’ defence needs and to promote the development of UK defence industrial capability. The UKDSC will pursue this vision and contribute, alongside other areas of the Defence Growth Partnership, to delivering an aspirational vision of the future. The vision is that UK defence exports will be thriving, delivering growth and prosperity to the UK economy. The UK export campaigns will be seamless between UK Government support and the actions of UK industry, to exploit high-value export opportunities with the best of British defence solutions. UKDSC Mission To strengthen the defence sectors’ performance in export, contributing to the security and the prosperity of our customers and the UK. It is important to recognise that the UKDSC's purpose is to contribute not only to the prosperity of the UK, but to the prosperity and security of the customer’s nation. Export customers are demanding more in the area of indigenous industry development, knowledge and technology transfer, so it is important to ensure these requirements are captured and addressed. The UKDSC believes that the greatest potential for developing enduring, successful trading relationships with overseas countries will be where mutual interests align in this way.

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IFH Business Development. Isabel helps engineering-led businesses win more work. She'll help you develop your sales and marketing strategy, and then either put that strategy into effect or train your technical experts to become highly effective salespeople.

inink. That's us. We’ll help you identify and engage the relevant decision makers, technical evaluators and end users, and then articulate your offer in ways that they find credible and compelling. We amplify the work of BD, capture, sales and marketing teams – and work directly with leadership – to help DefTech start-ups and SMEs punch above their wieght.

MilUX. Matt works with developers and MOD, helping with everything from early-stage research, concept generation and prototyping to product development and user testing. Like everyone we recommend, he's highly experienced, deeply capable and absolutely dedicated to getting the best tech into the right hands.

The Tender Coach. Laura's an all-round expert on the tendering process, offering Plain English advice and practical help with everything from opportunity identification to bid preparation, submission and presentation.

VRM Advisory. Smart, well connected and wildly capable, Victoria is a comms and PR specialist specialising in Defence and National Security. She and her team will ensure that your message lands with the right people across government and industry – and at just the right moment.

Milrem Robotics MyDefence Aktyvus Photonics Gwagenn MirSense SINTERMAT AnyBody Technology Zvook Ytsab Defence Operational Solutions Accurision Tiberius Aerospace

"The Home Office is the lead government department for immigration and passports, drugs policy, crime, fire, counter-terrorism and police. We are responsible for:

working on the problems caused by illegal drug use
shaping the alcohol strategy, policy and licensing conditions
keeping the United Kingdom safe from the threat of terrorism
reducing and preventing crime, and ensuring people feel safe in their homes and communities
securing the UK border and controlling immigration
considering applications to enter and stay in the UK
issuing passports and visas
supporting visible, responsible and accountable policing by empowering the public and freeing up the police to fight crime
fire prevention and rescue"

Source

"This framework enables public sector organisations to procure suppliers to deliver digital, data, and technology services in line with government policies, standards and best practices. The scope for this framework contract supports delivery across all service manual agile life cycle phases (discovery, alpha, beta, live and retirement) to deliver application development and user-centred design services to build great digital products and services that meet citizen needs."

Source

"You can use the Digital Outcomes and Specialists framework for:

digital outcomes: to find a team to deliver a digital outcome, such as a new integrated website, strategic delivery programme or an accessibility audit
digital specialists: to find an individual to deliver a digital outcome, such as a data scientist or developer
user research studios: to find a physical space in which to conduct user research
user research participants: to find users with the appropriate characteristics to test your service"

Source

The Office for Conflict, Stabilisation and Mediation (OCSM), formerly the Stabilisation Unit, is a cross-government unit of the UK government, governed through the National Security Council. It is part of the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO). It works cross-government to reduce the creation and intensity of conflicts abroad.

Source

"Project CABOT builds on the RN’s previous study outputs under Project CHARYBDIS and the UK-led NATO ASW Barrier Smart Defence initiative. Designed to boost maritime presence and underwater surveillance in the North Atlantic, CABOT envisions a scalable, unmanned approach to ASW, delivered in two phases Phase one, designated ATLANTIC NET, would introduce a Contractor-Owned, Contractor-Operated, Naval Oversight (COCONO) model. Under this construct, remotely operated or autonomous uncrewed surface and underwater systems would be fielded and managed by an industry partner. Uncrewed platforms will gather sensor data, make an initial assessment using artificial intelligence, and transmit semi-processed information to a secure Remote Operations Centre for review and analysis by RN personnel. Phase two, known as BASTION ATLANTIC, will see a transition to a Government-Owned, Government-Operated (GOGO) construct. At its core will be two new uncrewed platforms: the Type 92 ‘Sloop’, a large ASW-capable Uncrewed Surface Vessel (USV), and the Type 93 ‘Chariot’, an Extra Large Uncrewed Underwater Vehicle (XLUUV). The latter draws its name from the Second World War-era chariot human torpedo, while the former may derive from commercial crew-transfer vessels already being explored for optionally crewed use by the Netherlands Navy."

Source

Tender notice

ATLANTIC NET tender notice

Counter Terrorism Policing is a collaboration of UK police forces working with the UK intelligence community to help protect the public and our national security by preventing, deterring, and investigating terrorist activity. CTP’s mission also includes responsibility for protecting the UK against state threat activity, using the National Security Act and other legislation to counter hostile actions from parts of states such as Russia, China and Iran. We are also the law enforcement agency responsible for investigating war crimes internationally on behalf of the UK, and a small number of officers are engaged in those investigations.

Source

"HMGCC Co-Creation is our path for bringing together the best in class across industry, academia and government, to work collaboratively on national security engineering challenges and accelerate innovation. It is a partnership with Dstl (Defence Science and Technology Laboratory), created to deliver a new, bold and innovative way of working with the wider UK science and technology community. Co-Creation is the front door to the HMGCC technology eco-system. Our network who circulate our challenges is currently made up of the following:

Compound Semiconductor Applications Catapult
Connected Places Catapult
Horiba MIRA
Innovate UK Business Connect
Plexal
Satellite Applications Catapult
Silverstone Technology Cluster "STC"
Tech UK

We focus on problem statements rather than locking ourselves to specific requirement sets, which means we can think freely and work in an agile and iterative way. All our projects are run at OFFICIAL level – the lowest security classification – so our engineers and our end-users can work hand-in-hand with anyone who’s able to bring us a brilliant concept. Working together in this way, we can break down barriers, accelerate the rate of innovation and create more real-world impact."

Source

"The Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP), established in 2022, is an international partnership between the UK, Japan and Italy which will design, manufacture, and deliver a next-generation crewed combat aircraft. In 2018 the UK Government published its Combat Air Strategy. In what it described as “an ambitious vision for the future”, the strategy formally established a new acquisition programme to identify and deliver the next-generation combat air capabilities to replace the Eurofighter Typhoon.. The capability acquisition programme established by the strategy is now referred to as the Future Combat Air System (FCAS). FCAS encompasses the UK’s next-generation combat air capability development, including uncrewed aircraft and weapons. At its heart is a next-generation crewed combat aircraft, commonly referred to in the UK as “Tempest”, which is the capability that the Global Combat Air Programme will deliver. Tempest is expected to enter service in 2035. For the UK, the lead systems integrator is BAE Systems. Leonardo S.p.A. and Mitsubushi Heavy Industries fulfil the role for Italy and Japan respectively. The group of key UK industry partners working on GCAP in conjunction with the Ministry of Defence (MOD) is known as “Team Tempest”. Alongside BAE Systems, Team Tempest includes Rolls Royce (power and propulsion); Leonardo UK (sensors, electronics and avionics) and MBDA UK (advanced weapon systems). In total, almost 600 organisations are involved in the UK supply chain, including academia and SMEs."

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"The NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA) is NATO’s main services provider, delivering a broad spectrum of integrated capabilities for the Alliance, its member nations and partners. The Agency brings together NATO’s logistics support and procurement activities, providing effective and cost-efficient multinational support solutions. NSPA is a customer-funded agency, operating on a "no profit - no loss" basis."

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The Defence Support Function encompasses the people, processes and systems within the MOD that are engaged in Defence Support activities (logistics, engineering and equipment Support) to maintain military capability at pre-planned availability, readiness and sustainability, end-to-end from the point of production to the point of consumption. There are about sixty thousand people working in Support within the Defence Support Function. HOW DO WE DEFINE SUPPORT? Defence Support – logistics, engineering and equipment support – lies at the heart of ensuring Defence has the forces and equipment it needs to confront the threats we face. That is, ready when and where you need them, fully fit, armed and provisioned and deployed at a speed of relevance.

Logistics Support is the activity to sustain forces through the provision of materiel including acquisition, control, and distribution; provision of movement of personnel and materiel; and provision of logistics support services.
Engineering Support is the activity to ensure that performance and safety margins are known and managed by: ensuring the design of equipment is influenced by the way that is is supported; managing the way the design evolves through life to ensure the original design intent is preserved; and evaluating, testing or monitoring performance of components, equipment, systems or platforms.
Equipment Support, a significant subset under Engineering Support, is the activity to keep the required quantity of operational equipment available to the force. This is achieved by the through-life provision, management and execution of maintenance, repair, replacement and control of components crucial to the equipment’s material state and performance.

Source

"Among other technology areas, DIANA will focus on big data, artificial intelligence (AI), autonomy, quantum, biotechnologies and human enhancement, energy and propulsion, novel materials and advanced manufacturing and aerospace – specifically where they are dual-use (civilian and defence) and deep tech in nature, and where they can be used to solve challenging defence and security problems. DIANA’s team comprises military and civilian experts from across the Alliance running our challenges, accelerator programming, commercial advice, adoption efforts, and our corporate functions to keep DIANA running smoothly. DIANA’s staff lead operations across three sites: London, United Kingdom; Tallinn, Estonia; and Halifax, Canada. DIANA leverages a network of more than 20 affiliated accelerator sites and over 180 test centres."

Source

See also

NATO Rapid Adoption Action Plan (summary)

In the MOD’s own words The National Centre for Geospatial Intelligence (NCGI) forms part of Defence Intelligence within Strategic Command. It is centred at RAF Wyton in Cambridgeshire with sub-units based at locations around Greater London. NCGI’s mission is to provide impactful geospatial intelligence and open source intelligence that enhances defence’s ability to understand and plan, target and navigate.

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"The Army Warfighting Experiment (AWE) series (previously URBan EXperimentation or URBEX) has been an ongoing Army experimentation programme [...]. It has consistently delivered high quality evidence for the army and invaluable military feedback to industry. It explores technology suitable for exploitation in the short-to-medium term. It pushes the boundaries of technology and military capability, testing a range of prototype systems by putting them in the hands of the user while giving invaluable military feedback to industry."

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See also

AWE: The Urban Series 2022-24

AWE: Sustain and Protect (video)

"ARIA is a UK R&D funding agency built to unlock scientific and technological breakthroughs that benefit everyone. Society’s most important advances have stemmed from those willing to think differently about what might be possible. The Advanced Research + Invention Agency (ARIA) empowers scientists and engineers, from our Programme Directors to the teams we fund, with the resources and freedom to pursue breakthroughs at the edge of the possible. Many will fail to meet their target, but their efforts will inspire the next generation. Those that do succeed will generate massive social and economic returns."

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The National Security Secretariat coordinates security and intelligence issues of strategic importance across government and supports the National Security Adviser and National Security Council. The Joint Intelligence Organisation produces independent all-source assessments on issues of national security and foreign policy and supports the Joint Intelligence Committee. The National Security Secretariat (NSS) is led by the Executive Deputy National Security Adviser. It works to keep the UK safe, secure and prosperous by coordinating the UK’s national security community, supporting the Prime Minister and the National Security Adviser. This includes:

supporting the National Security Council, including the relevant collective-agreement process;
overseeing the delivery of the National Security Strategy 2025;
coordinating key national security and foreign policy matters across government;
ensuring preparedness and crisis response through COBR.

The Joint Intelligence Organisation is responsible for:

providing all-source intelligence assessments for the Prime Minister, the National Security Council and policy makers across government which assess threats to the UK and UK interests overseas;
giving early warning of the development of direct and indirect threats and opportunities in those fields to British interests or policies and to the international community as a whole;
maintaining oversight of the assessment of intelligence across government, encouraging professional standards and best practice to improve the government’s analytical capability as a whole.

The National Security Secretariat is headed by Matthew Collins, the Executive Deputy National Security Adviser. The current National Security Adviser is Jonathan Powell and is the principal adviser to the Prime Minister and Cabinet on national security matters. The Joint Intelligence Organisation is headed by Madeleine Alessandri, Chair of the Joint Intelligence Committee and Professional Head of Intelligence Analysis.

Source

"The Ministry of Defence will develop a new Digital Targeting Web to better connect Armed Forces weapons systems and allow battlefield decisions for targeting enemy threats to be made and executed faster. This pioneering digital capability will give the UK a decisive advantage through greater integration across domains, new AI and software, and better communication between our Armed Forces. As an example, a threat could be identified by a sensor on a ship or in space before being disabled by an F-35 aircraft, drone, or offensive cyber operation. Delivering this new Digital Targeting Web is central to UK efforts to learn lessons directly from the front line in Ukraine. When the Ukrainians achieved a step-change in lethality early in the war – by being able to find the enemy, target them and attack quickly and at scale - it allowed them to stop the encircling Russian advance." inkling: We understand the CSOC will be accountable for delivery, Degence Digital (NAD Group) will be responsible for delivery, and that the SRO will be Dir. Integrated Warfare See also: ASGARD; NEXUS; STRIKE NET; GCAP; Integrated Air & Missile Defence

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"The Develop Directorate is responsible for designing the ‘Navy after Next’. Our collaborative relationship with industry is critical to ensure that we meet future challenges at a pace that matches the evolving threat. We run a series of events to provide clarity, certainty and most importantly opportunity, for industry to engage with Maritime Capability development at an earlier stage than has previously been the case. Maritime capability includes everything from complex platforms to our business software, and everything in between."

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[See also DASA] [See also BattleLab] [See also DIANA] [See also jHub Defence Innovation Accelerator] [See also NSSIF] [See also ARIA] [UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund]

UKRI Innovation Accelerator

Digital Catapult

Airbus UK Space Accelerator

Entrepreneur First

Seedcamp

Founders Factory

UK Space Agency Accelerator

CyLon

IoT Tribe

"Defence Standardization (DStan) sits within the Engineering Group under the Director Engineering and Safety and is MOD’s centre of excellence for through-life standardization management. DStan is responsible for the development of MOD Standardization Policy as detailed in Joint Service Publication (JSP) 920. DStan additionally manages the development of the portfolio of Defence Standards supporting the delivery of military capability. DStan delivers the following services:

maintenance and development of a relevant and required portfolio of UK Defence Standards (Def Stans)
negotiating, influencing and agreeing NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) standardization policy and procedures to support UK military operations in achieving NATO Capability Targets
provision of standardization policy (in JSP 920) which is consistent and aligned with government and NATO
provision of MOD standardization input to cross-government standardization committees
online provision of the services and processes in standardization management, and standards development and via the Standardization Management Information System (StanMIS) toolset
management of national ratification and implementation reporting of operational and materiel NATO Standardization Agreements (STANAGs) in support of interoperability in UK MOD military operations and acquisition
provision of online access to UK Defence Standards, NATO STANAGs and their associated Allied Standards
provision of access for MOD employees to national and international civil standards such as British Standards (BSs), European Standards (ENs) and International Standards (ISOs) via the Standards online service."

Source

"FCI specialises in the novel, disruptive, complex and cross-cutting technology risks and opportunities relevant to multiple projects across defence, delivering invaluable data insights and capability advantage to Front Line Commands (FLCs). In terms of its place in the wider MOD innovation Ecosystem, if the FLC innovation Hubs, DSTL, DASA Experiment, FCI is there to facilitate the next stage of innovation to Explore the Technology, and to accelerate into Exploitation, which is where Core Delivery Teams in DE&S then come into play.We are not a traditional MOD delivery team which are focused on Programmes of Record, instead we are focused on ‘Speed to Value’ and ‘Fail Fast’ working under Agile Values and Principles to accelerate both new ways of working and pushing the envelope of what is technologically possible to fulfil the needs of the UK military."

Source

“Futures Lab is essentially a future capability innovation service that is exploring all new technology being delivered into operations. We take problems or questions and go out to academia and industry and pull together a bespoke team of expert knowledge that can investigate, and then create a training plan that can spell out how the tech could be used and whom it is most likely to benefit. They look at how you would purchase it, how it would be maintained, how it would be used and even how it would be disposed of. Having the ability to bring together niche Pan Defence Suitably Qualified and Experienced Person (SQEP) that may not already exist in the MOD will drive significant efficiencies both in terms of time and money.Futures Lab, which works mainly in the pre concept space but can be utilised at any point in a project lifecycle, has an open network of around 230 subject matter experts, and give a broad view of the topic rather than that of just one contractor. Within this ‘networks of networks,’ those that can be called upon include Met Office, The Catapult Network, South West Regional Defence and Security Cluster (SWRDSC), Make UK, techUK and ADS.

Source

"The Discover, Assessment & Rapid Exploitation (DARE) Programme team explore ways of providing cutting-edge technology and operational prototypes to show where the Royal Navy could go in the future. They hear from frontline sailors and Royal Marines on how things could be done differently, and better – helping to turn their ideas into a reality."

Source

"The main purpose of the Royal Air Force is to deliver the necessary military effects across a full range of air and space power. It protects the integrity of UK airspace on a daily basis and conducts other conflict and crisis management operations at home and abroad. The headquarters of the Royal Air Force (Air Command) is located at High Wycombe and the Service is led by the Chief of the Air Staff (CAS), a 4-star Air Chief Marshal. CAS is supported at 3-star-level by Deputy Commander Operations, who is responsible for the conduct of air and space operations at home and overseas, and Deputy Commander Capability, who is responsible for the strategic planning and delivery of all aspects of Royal Air Force capability, including people, equipment, infrastructure and training. The RAF's core roles are:

Control of the Air – securing freedom of action in the air domain and enabling freedom of manoeuvre across the maritime and land domains.
Attack – delivering air power effects, kinetic and non-kinetic, across the domains.
Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance – developing situational awareness and enhancing understanding.
Air Mobility – enabling operations by deploying, sustaining and recovering forces and delivering decisive effect through activities such as humanitarian relief.
Air Command and Control – enabling the delivery of air power.
Space – developing space situational awareness and responsible, on behalf of Defence, for the operate and generate elements of space capability"

Source

"The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has announced a comprehensive framework for missile defence research and development. The contract will manage the delivery of research covering all activities to counter ballistic missiles and advanced threats, including but not limited to simple non-separating threats, complex separating threats, Manoeuvring Re-Entry Vehicles (MaRVs), Multiple Independently Targetable Re-Entry Vehicles (MIRVs), Hypersonic Glide Vehicles (HGVs), Hypersonic Cruise Missiles (HCM), and hybrid threats. The research required will cover analysis, experimentation, trials, and technology/system development across all pillars of missile defence:

Counter-proliferation: Measures to minimise the spread of missile technology.
Deterrence: Measures to discourage the use of missile threats.
Counterforce: Actions to reduce the quantity of missiles and supporting equipment available to an aggressor during a conflict.
Active defence: Strategies to detect, track, intercept, and disable or destroy missiles in flight.
Passive defence: Measures to mitigate and recover from the effects of missile impacts.

The STORM framework, with an estimated budget of £110 million to £251 million, addresses a broad spectrum of missile defence activities. According to the MoD, the contract will “manage delivery of research covering all activities to counter ballistic missiles and advanced threats including but not limited to simple non-separating threats, complex separating threats, Manoeuvring Re-Entry Vehicles (MaRVs) and Multiple Independently Targetable Re-Entry Vehicles (MIRVs), Hypersonic Glide Vehicles (HGVs), Hypersonic Cruise Missiles (HCM) and hybrid threats which share characteristics with BM, HGV and/or HCM."

Source

ANYbotics RobCo GIM Robotics Vimotek Fernride

Countercraft Goldlock Amzen 42Crunch ExlecticIQ ByzGen Lab1 Arqit 3IPK Januus Runecast CyNation DataflowX DeNexus Osavul Modirum Sensity AI

"NATO Centres of Excellence are nationally or multi-nationally funded institutions accredited by NATO. They train and educate leaders and specialists from NATO member and partner countries, assist in doctrine development, identify lessons learned, improve interoperability and capabilities, and test and validate concepts through experimentation. They offer recognized expertise and experience that is of benefit to the Alliance and support the transformation of NATO, while avoiding the duplication of assets, resources and capabilities already present within the NATO command structure. Although not part of the NATO command structure, they are part of a wider framework supporting NATO Command Arrangements. Designed to complement the Alliance’s current resources, Centres of Excellence cover a wide variety of areas, with each one focusing on a specific field of expertise to enhance NATO capabilities. The overall responsibility for Centres of Excellence coordination and utilization within NATO lies with Allied Command Transformation, in co-ordination with the Supreme Allied Commander Europe."

Air Operations (AO)
Civil-Military Cooperation (CCOE)
Climate Change And Security COE (CCASCOE)
Cold Weather Operations (CWO)
Combined Joint Operations from the Sea (CJOS)
Command and Control (C2)
Operations in Confined and Shallow Waters (CSW)
Cooperative Cyber Defence (CCD)
Counter Improvised Explosive Devices (C-IED)
Counter Intelligence (CI)
Crisis Management and Disaster Response (CMDR)
Defence Against Terrorism (DAT)
Energy Security (ENSEC)
Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD)
Human Intelligence (HUMINT)
Integrated Air & Missile Defence (IAMD)
Joint Air Power Competence Centre (JAPCC)
Joint Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Defence (JCBRN Defence)
Maritime Geospatial, Meteorological & Oceanographic (MGEOMETOC)
Maritime Security (MARSEC)
Military Engineering (MILENG)
Military Medicine (MILMED)
Military Police (MP)
Modelling & Simulation (M&S)
Mountain Warfare (MW)
Naval Mine Warfare (NMW)
Security Force Assistance (SFA)
Space (Space COE)
Stability Policing (SP)
Strategic Communications (STRATCOM)

Source

sharing specialist export advice and intelligence with UK industry across land, maritime, aerospace, cyber and security
supporting and showcasing UK industry at domestic and overseas events, including major UK exhibitions
coordinating HM Government support for export and investment opportunities
facilitating government-to-government partnerships
building strong relationships with overseas governments and other stakeholders to maintain or raise awareness of UK industry capabilities in established and developing markets"

Source

"Suppliers of science and technology research can sign up to R-Cloud to access opportunities from across the Ministry of Defence. R-Cloud is run by the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) on behalf of the MOD. R-Cloud is different from traditional procurement frameworks, enabling suppliers to:

apply quickly and easily using the online application process
join at any time during the R-Cloud term, because it’s a dynamic agreement
receive targeted invitations to bid for opportunities tailored to your key capabilities and skills
access opportunities to contract directly with MOD
retain intellectual property rights
efficiently take up opportunities using R-Cloud’s smooth online tasking process that includes standardised terms and conditions and tasking forms

Everything is managed using the online R-Cloud service at https://rcloud.dstl.gov.uk/ - from applying to join, to responding to relevant opportunities."

Source

"The Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) is the estate expert for defence, supporting the armed forces to enable military capability by planning, building, maintaining, and servicing infrastructure. We are responsible for enabling defence people to live, work, train and deploy at home and overseas. Our responsibilities include:plan and deliver major capital projects and lifecycle refurbishment provide utilities services manage soft facilities management (ie cleaning and catering) provide a safe place to train allocate Service Families Accommodation procure and manage routine maintenance and reactive repair provide a central register of asset information to advise infrastructure planning act as steward of the defence estate The DIO commercial strategy explains how we aim to transform the way we do business. It has a focus on increasing supplier numbers, offering greater opportunities to small and medium-sized enterprises as well as larger suppliers. The strategy also gives information on the types of opportunities available to prospective suppliers."

Source

"The Procurement Pipeline replaces the Procurement Plan and complements the DIO Commercial Strategy. It aims to inform industry of what DIO plans to buy on behalf of its Armed Forces customers. The pipeline is updated regularly to ensure that the latest information is available."

Source

"The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) focuses on improving people’s lives by maximising the potential of science and technology. Our priorities are: 1. Accelerate innovation, investment and productivity through world-class science, research and development. 2. Use technology for good by ensuring that new and existing technologies are safely developed and deployed across the UK, with the benefits more widely shared. 3. Drive forward a modern digital government which gives citizens a more satisfying experience and their time back."

Source

Services which are available through this agreement include (but are not limited to):

core network infrastructure, including services and equipment needed for network access
both for traditional core network infrastructure needs, as well as public internet connectivity solutions
local area network including products and services facilitating connectivity within the customers location
fibre optic cabling
5G network
internet access
unified communications: application or platform that provides multiple communication methods including voice, video and data services
Internet Protocol (IP) Telephony enables voice calls over the internet
cloud services
audio and video conferencing (collaboration solutions)
satellite networking
maintenance and support services
contact centre services
security and surveillance
professional services required to design, build (install) and deliver (manage) network solutions

The agreement now also enables customers to buy a new range of ‘emerging technologies’ with the introduction of:

IoT (Internet of Things) and Smart Technologies (smart, shared and connected spaces)
tactical radio products and services
critical domain services: the services needed to register, maintain and manage domain names
communication platform as a service

Source

The NSOIT leads the UK government’s operational response to information threats online, and ensures the government takes necessary steps to identify and respond to acute misinformation (i.e. incorrect or misleading information) and disinformation (i.e. information which is deliberately created to cause harm) that pose risks to UK national security and public safety. NSOIT is focused on the greatest risks to public safety and national security, which are agreed by ministers and regularly communicated to parliament.

Source

"DE&S Deca are an operating centre within DE&S dedicated to maintenance, repair, overhaul, upgrade, procurement and managed services provision across Defence electronics, components and general equipment support. Our strategic priorities

continue to grow and transform as the Ministry of Defence’s (MOD’s) electrical, electronic, avionic and general equipment maintenance, repair, overhaul and upgrade delivery hub in line with MOD’s capability priorities
focus the business to provide greater support across Air, Land, Maritime and Strategic Enabler domains
provide an assured, effective and efficient regional, national and global centre of excellence, working in collaboration with strategic partners, UK devolved administrations as well as European, US and other allies
become an internationally recognised provider of deployable, sustainable and cost-effective support and managed service solutions
transform the business to contribute to MOD’s efficiency and sustainability targets, utilising unique ‘repair not replace’ solutions, and assuring a skilled, efficient, engaged and increasingly diverse workforce"

Source

"The National Drone Hub in Cornwall stands as a pioneering facility dedicated to advancing UAV technology and operations. Situated on a sprawling 320 hectare site, just 600 metres from the sea, with four runways and multiple operating surfaces, the hub offers an ideal environment for both fixed and rotary wing drone operations. The National Drone Hub is delivered by Wholeship, in partnership with the Royal Navy at RNAS Culdrose, and in collaboration with the Cornwall Space Cluster."

Source

"The Defence Artificial Intelligence Centre (DAIC) champions, enables and innovates artificial intelligence (AI) across UK Defence, working collaboratively with government, industry, academia and our allies for the strategic advantage of our Armed Forces.Champion: act as a visionary hub, accelerating the coherent understanding, development and use of AI capabilities. Enable: provide common AI services, good practice and a critical mass of expertise to support local adoption. Innovate: rapidly develop, deliver and scale AI projects that generate breakthroughs in strategic advantage in support of Defence priorities. The DAIC works collaboratively across Defence as a federated organisation, supported by a core team from Defence Digital, Defence Equipment & Support, and Defence Science and Technology Laboratory."

Source

See also

Defence AI Strategy

Defence AI Playbook

Dstl Biscuit Books

ininkling: It's not [yet] easy to idenitfy mid-tier suppliers (as of Oct 25). We've asked MOD and trade organisations like ADS and techUK – and they, too, are trying to figure it out.The problem is broadly this: SMEs are defined by headcount and turnover. Primes are, well, Prime contractors. (There are currently 18 listed Strategic Partners and another 15 or so other prime contractors who aren't offically 'strategic partners'.) Mid-tier suppliers – of which there are about 2,500 – are simply defined as 'not a Prime and not an SME'. So if you're looking for a mid-tier supplier to partner up with you're going to have to spend time, money and shoe-leather.

Spend late nights trawling through Contracts Finder
Join and speak to a trade organisation
Pitch up at some of the pre-market engagement / meet-the-buyer events. Some of these are only open to trade organisation members but there are a lot that are free to attend.
Speak to NAD Group and, in particular, the Office for Small Business Growth (when it's open for business).

(If you've got any tips on how to 'find your place in the supply chain' then we'd love to hear 'em!)

The Joint State Threats Assessment Team (JSTAT) was established in June 2017 and is based within MI5. JSTAT's role JSTAT is a cross-departmental assessment organisation that provides analysis on the state threats to the UK and its people and to UK interests overseas. They assess the national security threat posed by activities such as espionage, assassination, and interference in our democracy, and threats to the UK’s economic security. JSTAT provides assessment for a wide range of government departments.

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Our new Ploughshare Accelerator Fund (PAF) invests in the IP we are commercialising. It helps bridge the valley of death between less mature technologies to make them more obviously capable of delivering a competitive advantage and market penetration. The PAF can also be used tohelp form a spin-out, for example, to cover initial set-up costs and help develop prototypes."

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"DIANA seeks dual-use, deep tech solutions to critical defence, security and resilience challenges through public challenge calls. Through a highly competitive selection process, DIANA selects innovators based on their proposed solutions and invites them to join the DIANA Challenge Programme (often referred to simply as the DIANA Programme). These innovators sign a framework agreement to become “DIANA Innovators” and continue iterating the solution they proposed in response to the challenge. Selected innovators then enter the Accelerator Programme, which is delivered in two distinct phases (Phase 1 and Phase 2). Across these two phases, DIANA Innovators can access DIANA’s test centre network to test, evaluate, verify and validate their solutions against end-user needs. All DIANA Innovators, as part of the DIANA Challenge Programme, work to have their solutions adopted by end-users across NATO and Allies.

Innovators selected to join Phase 1 of DIANA’s Accelerator Programme receive contractual funding of 100,000 euros to continue iterating their solution in response to the Challenge.
At the end of Phase 1, a competitive down-selection takes place and a select number of DIANA Innovators will move forward to Phase 2 of DIANA’s Accelerator Programme.
Selected DIANA Innovators may receive additional funding of up to 300,000 euros to further iterate and demonstrate their solution, develop transition strategies, and work with investors and end users to identify pathways to adoption.
All DIANA Innovators selected through the initial challenge call are supported in identifying adoption pathways to get their solutions into the hands of end-users."

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"The Single Source Regulations Office (SSRO) oversees the regulatory framework for single source (non-competitive) defence contracts, which places pricing controls on qualifying contracts and requires transparency on the part of defence contractors. Our purpose is to support and improve the operation of the regulatory framework and to assist the organisations who must apply it to do so as effectively as possible. Through the delivery of our statutory functions we aim to ensure that good value for money is obtained in government expenditure on qualifying defence contracts and that contractors are paid a fair and reasonable price under those contracts."

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Rowden CloudSecure Digital Platform

"The PICASSO programme within the Ministry of Defence (MOD) develops and sustains the United Kingdom’s (UK) national Geospatial Intelligence (GEOINT) Information Communication Technology (ICT) capabilities which includes access to ally and partner collected imagery and associated geospatial data; provision of platform-agnostic exploitation systems for sovereign GEOINT collection and the production of maps, air charts and other foundation geospatial information."

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"ACE is a Home Office capability within the Homeland Security Group. It’s a partnership between the public and private sectors. It has access to a community of more than 260 organisations and experts drawn from the private sector and academia, from which it selects and combines the capabilities best suited to any given problem. Established in 2017, ACE applies its approach of industry-led innovation and co-creation to increasingly wide-ranging challenges from across government and other public sector agencies. ACE’s objectives are to:

accelerate development of public safety and security capabilities to achieve rapid impact in missions across government and the wider public sector
support data-enabled investigations, law enforcement and counter terrorism operations
apply agile, mission-led innovation to deliver practical solutions within just weeks or months
provide public sector customers with direct access to industry expertise and capabilities
give small and medium sized enterprises a simpler way to work with government customers
provide forward-looking insights into emerging threat and opportunity landscapes
create common purpose across a complex stakeholder community and diverse sectors
focus on putting the public sector at the centre of problem-solving to ensure better buy-in to innovative solutions"

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"MI5 is responsible for: Countering terrorism: MI5 is responsible for investigating all forms of terrorist threat to the UK. Primarily, this stems from Islamist terrorism, extreme right-wing terrorism, Northern Ireland-related terrorism and, to a lesser degree in terms of volume, left-wing, anarchist or single-issue terrorism. Countering state threats: State threats are overt or covert actions by foreign governments which fall short of direct armed conflict with the UK but go beyond peaceful diplomacy and expected statecraft to harm or threaten the safety or interests of the UK or our allies. State threats do not only materialise against government and intelligence agencies. Some states are particularly interested in industrial or commercial information which could be used to support their own economy or military. States may seek to exploit foreign direct investment, academic partnerships and supply chains to gain access to sensitive information. Protective security: The National Protective Security Authority (NPSA) provides expert advice on physical and personnel security to businesses, academia and other organisations. For example, the Secure Innovation advice helps start-ups and spin outs to take proportionate steps to keep their ideas and technologies safe from theft by state actors. Trusted Research offers bespoke advice to academia to help protect cutting-edge work in the UK’s universities. NPSA works closely with the National Cyber Security Centre, which is part of GCHQ, to offer joined-up advice about how best to respond to both physical and online threats. The Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre (JTAC) is based within MI5 and reports to the Director General, but their assessments are made independently. JTAC sets the national terrorism threat level as well as the threat level from Northern Ireland Related Terrorism in Northern Ireland and issues warnings of threats and other terrorism-related subjects to government departments and law enforcement. The Joint State Threats Assessment Team (JSTAT) is a cross-departmental assessment organisation that provides analysis on the state threats to the UK and its people and to UK interests overseas. They assess the national security threat posed by activities such as espionage, assassination, and interference in our democracy, and threats to the UK’s economic security. JSTAT provides assessment for a wide range of government departments."

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Intelligent automation services and solutions, including automation technologies, services, consultancy and licences. A Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) that offers automation services and licences for use by the public sector, including their associated bodies and agencies. Automation services are needed to streamline processes and systems for public sector customers. The agreement offers the following services:

strategy and business transformation
problem solving with tech solutions
resources and training
software licences

What is out of scope?

Products and services out of scope include but are not limited to:
any hardware and infrastructure
hosting
networks or connectivity services

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Rt Hon John Healey MP (SoS for Defence) Jeremy Pocklington (Permanent Secretary) Lord Coaker (Min of State (Minister for the House of Lords)) Luke Pollard MP (Minister of State (Minister for Defence Readiness & Industry)) Alistair Carns DSO OBE MC MP (Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Minister for the Armed Forces)) Louise Sandher-Jones MP (Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Minister for Veterans & People))

This Dynamic Market is designed to address the 'valley of death' and to increase engagement and competition in the innovation and scaling phases of solution development. Innovation and scaling are the focus areas of this Dynamic Market. The guidelines that we are providing to assist in the understanding of the scope are as follows: Innovation is the process of creating, developing, or improving products, services, processes, or business models to generate value. It involves the practical implementation of new ideas to solve problems, meet needs, or exploit opportunities, often leading to significant advancements in efficiency, quality or user experience with a view to testing, improving outcomes and scaling solutions into operational development. This Dynamic Market seeks organisations that are motivated to help defence answer existing and future problems and / or to scale solutions up to operational deployment as well as all phases in between. For this reason, we heavily encourage organisations from academia and micro enterprises all the way through to global corporations to join the Dynamic Market ecosystem.

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Gen Sir Roly Walker, Chief of the General Staff WO1 Carney, Army Sergeant Major Lt Gen David Eastman, Deputy CGS Lt Gen Mike Elviss, Commander Field Army Lt Gen Charlie Collins, Commander Home Command and Standing Joint Commander

Our aim in the Centre for Defence Engineering is to create world-leading academic knowledge within the multiple disciplines that make up defence engineering and technology. The Centre is focused on the provision of teaching, research and consultancy excellence; our academics are keen to help you find solutions to real life problems. We strive to produce international-standard scientists and engineers through our educational programmes, which are designed to enable students to reach intelligent decisions concerning design, development and acquisition of technologies. We share our knowledge with our partners in the UK’s Ministry of Defence, wider government and industry through publications, teaching, collaboration and entrepreneurship.

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"Working closely with tactical users, MarWorks are specialists in delivering architectures to support data flow and tactical feeds over secure, agile communications. As the Royal Navy’s information warfare technology accelerator, they work alongside the user community by conducting rapid experimentation to exploit leading technologies to provide the naval service with cutting-edge solutions."

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Our vision: ProtectUK is a trusted and reliable source of free counter terrorism protective security and preparedness advice, guidance and learning for venues and public spaces across the United Kingdom. Our mission: To provide free and easy access to information, guidance and learning to help businesses and communities understand protective security, improve their response to the risk of terrorism and keep people safe. Who we are: ProtectUK is a platform that provides freely available counter terrorism and protective security advice. We support business, government and community organisations in the public and private sectors who are responsible for venues and public spaces.

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Project A maintains a superb list of European Resilience & DefenceTech investors here

Institutional investors[Defence, Security & Resilience Bank?] NSSIF UK Innovation & Science Fund NATO Innovation Fund UK Research & Innovation

VC/PE MD One Adara Capital Angel One Coinvest Capital Frst K Fund Kima Ventures Lemonade Stand Offset Ventures OTB Ventures Plural SFC Capital ScaleWolf SMRK ZAS Ventures 42CAP 6 Degrees Capital GALLOS Technologies Allied Entropy Industrial Capital Offset Ventures Expeditions Fund 201 Ventures D3 Ventures Paralos Green Flag Ventures Hyperion FNX Ventures Double Tap Investments Accel Air Street Captial Alpine Space Ventures Black Opal Ventures Blueyard Captial Cavalry Ventures Decisive Point DN Capital EOT Ventures Frontier Vectors Green Flag Ventures HCVC IN-Q-Tel IQ Capital Lakestar Lazard Lightspeed Venture Partners Lunar Ventures Prima Materia Project A

VC/PE [cont'd] OTB Ventures Twin Track Ventures VSquared Ventures Tiny Supercomputer Investment Co. Keen Venture Partners Mosaic Ventures Cherry Ventures Bpifrance 360 Capital 7PERCENT IQ Capital Move Capital Tikehau Capital Blueyard Unruly Capital CyLon Omnes Capital Lakestar MMC Ventures Notion Capital Starquest Innovacom High-Tech Gründ Atlantic Bridge b2venture Magnetic BSV Ventures Cybica AM Ventures Buildit Inflection VC Silicone Roundabout Ventures

"The Defence Industrial Joint Council replaces the former Defence Suppliers Forum and aims to harness a wider, and more diverse set of defence expertise to shape the future of Britain’s defence manufacturing, supply chain and innovation – including trade union representation alongside SMEs and investors for the first time. The Council is underpinned by a commitment to continually refresh and widen its membership, to champion new entrants to the defence sector. The diversity of the DIJC’s members reflects the defence sector of the future, a joint endeavour characterised by innovation and efficiency. "

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See also

DIJC Expression of Interest

Defence Suppliers Forum

DSF 2025 Defence Industry Vision

Experimentation & Trials Group Army Experimentation Battalion Infantry Trials & Development Unit Armoured Trials & Development Unit Royal Artillery Trials & Development Unit Royal Engineers Trials & Development Unit See also 2 YORKS (capability pathfinders) 77th Brigade (Hybrid unit of Regulars and Reservists with specialist skills to combat new forms of warfare in the information environment)

"The UK Hydrographic Office (UKHO) is a world-leading centre for hydrography, delivering data and expertise to support safe, secure and thriving oceans. UKHO is an executive agency, sponsored by the Ministry of Defence. Supporting safe navigation is at the heart of what we do. We deliver quality, innovative maritime navigation solutions, trusted by customers and partners worldwide, through our ADMIRALTY portfolio, which is relied upon by over 90% of large ships trading internationally to support safe, efficient and compliant global trade. This is underpinned by the work undertaken by our experts, in partnership with a range of organisations worldwide, to source, process and publish hydrographic and marine geospatial data from seabed to surface and beyond. We create contracts in 3 ways:

other government department (OGD) framework agreements - these are led by the Crown Commercial Services and the MOD
UKHO framework agreements, for goods and services where an OGD does not exist
UKHO specific requirements, for one-off situations where no suitable framework agreement exists, including all goods and services valued at more than £25,000

Find UKHO contract opportunities on our opportunities portal."

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The Vision A vibrant UK ecosystem of well capitalised and high growth small businesses who are attracted to the defence market, confident in MOD and Prime suppliers and working at a wartime pace, delivering war fighting readiness to the Armed Forces and allied customers. The Mission To protect the security of the UK, along with its domestic and overseas interests, the Office will provide a coherent and enhanced link between the MoD and industry through targeted and streamlined internal and external support services. Driving economic growth within UK micro, small and medium enterprises, we will derive the best solutions to ensure speed and agility in adapting to ever-evolving threats. Service areas Shape: Services that ensure SME involvement across MOD opportunities with a focus on building robust supply chains Advise: Services that provide advice to SMEs and MOD delivery teams and facilitate SME entry into the defence supply chain Grow: Services that enable SMEs to rapidly scale up and grow their business within defence Direct & Assure: Challenge MOD and Industry on policy and behaviours, driving accountability to change in the acquisition system.

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NSSIF is a partnership between the NS&D community and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) that backs breakthrough technologies that strengthen our collective security and defence. We invest in early-stage companies, align government demand with start-up supply, and help founders scale with capital, contracts, and insight. Founded in 2018, we combine mission-driven investment with innovation-led growth - working across government, venture capital, and industry to accelerate adoption of critical technologies. Our model blends equity investment, tailored research and development work programmes, and strategic partnerships to close the gap between NS&D needs and emerging capabilities. We prioritise UK SMEs, collaborate globally, and support jobs across borders. How we drive impact: 1. We invest in early-stage start-ups developing dual-use technologies with potential to transform National Security and Defence (NS&D). Our capital is deployed through: - Direct equity investments - Partnerships with aligned venture funds We typically invest at Seed and early growth stages, working alongside other government investors to help founders scale. Every investment is guided by strategic relevance to NS&D and commercial potential. 2. We fund targeted R&D programmes that connect high-potential tech companies with government users. These contracts accelerate product development, shape roadmaps with real-world feedback, and solve mission-critical challenges. 3. We provide strategic insight on emerging technologies and markets to guide NS&D technology decision-making. Our analysis helps hundreds of policymakers in government every year understand trends, technology sectors and pioneering capabilities that underpin future innovation.

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"The Royal Navy provides security at sea, prevents conflict, delivers humanitarian assistance and strengthens international partnerships in order to protect and develop the UK’s economic interests. Its ships, submarines and aircraft are deployed every day around the world, together with the Royal Marines, who are the Royal Navy’s amphibious troops and the UK’s Commando Force. They are supported by the logistics and supply ships of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary. The Royal Navy also delivers the Continuous At Sea Deterrent on behalf of NATO and the nation. The Headquarters of the Royal Navy is in Portsmouth, and the service is led by the First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff, a 4-star Admiral. The First Sea Lord is supported at 3-star level by the Second Sea Lord, who is responsible for people, training, capability development and acquisition; and the Fleet Commander, who is responsible for force generation and operations. The Royal Navy has five key outputs:

delivering operational advantage in the North Atlantic to maintain the freedom of manoeuvre for our nuclear deterrent and increase operational advantage in the underwater battlespace;
developing a Carrier Strike capability capable of deploying around the world as a sovereign group or with our allies
developing a Future Commando Force, returning to commando roots, with specialist troops using cutting-edge technology to deliver intelligence, reconnaissance, strike operations and humanitarian assistance
increasing Forward Presence, representing Global Britain around the world with every platform acting as a sensor, an intelligence station and an embassy
improving the use of technology and innovation to deliver more capabilities to the front line faster and remain ahead of the nation’s adversaries."

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As part of the route to the Royal Navy's Hybrid Air Wing, Project VANQUISH seeks to deliver a technical demonstration at sea of an attritable (Tier 2) Fixed Wing Short Take Off and Landing Autonomous Collaborative Platform (FW STOL ACP); nominal target date by the end of 2026, with options for delivery within an 18 month window from the target date also considered. The air vehicle must be able to embark and operate autonomously from a Queen Elizabeth Class (QEC) Aircraft Carrier and is to be jet turbine powered and capable of high subsonic speed. It should be able to launch and recover to QEC without Catapults or Arrested Recovery Systems and with a credible payload and endurance. There must be an exploitation pathway to the delivery of a wide range of maritime mission sets in support of UK Carrier Strike in due course (ISR/Strike/Air-Air Refuelling), to compliment F35B LIGHTNING, as part of QEC and its Carrier Air Wing.

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"Trade associations are funded by businesses that operate in a specific industry, and many operate on a not-for-profit basis. Their activities are focused on enhancing the profile of their industry sector, which includes driving innovation, influencing policy debates, and supporting the supply chain and business development, often with a focus on small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)."

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Team Defence Information ADS techUK Make UK Defence UKSpace Society of Maritime Industries Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) Farnborough Aerospace Consortium West of England Aerospace Consortium North West Aerospace Alliance The British Healthcare Trades Association (BHTA) Gauge and Tool Makers Association Aerospace Wales Forum Heropreneurs Invest Northern Ireland Innovate UK Business Connect Veteran Owned UK

"The Homeland Security Group sits at the heart of the UK’s national security system, setting strategic direction and playing a crucial enabling role in national security and law enforcement operations. Its mission is to reduce national security risks to the UK’s people, prosperity and freedoms. It focuses on the highest harm risks to the homeland, whether from terrorists, state actors, or cyber and economic criminals. The Homeland Security Group

provides system leadership for counter-terrorism and the domestic response to state threats
provides joint leadership for countering illicit finance and economic crime
maintains and delivers the legal and policy frameworks for some of the most important national security and policing powers, in particular investigatory powers, and delivers crucial investigative capabilities, including communications data
facilitates the warrantry for the use of policing and investigatory powers and the oversight of operational partners
0coordinates the operational response to a domestic national security incident including by facilitating COBR and authorising military assets during an ongoing terrorist incident
supports sensitive immigration decisions needed as part of a live incident and on a routine basis
makes a critical contribution to harnessing cutting-edge capabilities and building UK cyber power by:
leading efforts to deliver next-generation interception of communications
providing critical investment in science and technology to anticipate the emerging technologies of the future."

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"[The Defence Sourcing Portal is] the e-sourcing platform and one-stop-shop for contract opportunities, tendering and information on doing business with the Ministry of Defence. MOD contract opportunities will be advertised and tendered on this platform."

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Further reading DSP: Supplier Registration Guide

The UK Integrated Security Fund (UKISF) uses a whole-of-government approach to find creative solutions to the most complex national security challenges outlined in the Integrated Review Refresh 2023 (IRR). The ISF replaced the Conflict, Stability and Security Fund (CSSF) on 1 April 2024. It builds on the success of the CSSF, which started in 2015. The CSSF enabled the UK government to improve how it addressed the greatest threats to UK national security from abroad, including conflict, transnational threats and hostile state activity. Find out more about the CSSF. Operating in over 90 countries and territories, the ISF combines Official Development Assistance (ODA) and non-ODA  funding sources. This gives a broad geographic and thematic reach and combines funding in a way few other international donors can. The ISF operates across government. The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, Home Office, Ministry of Defence and other departments administer its programmes. The ISF is managed by the Integrated Security Fund Unit, part of the Cabinet Office. The governing board includes ministers from across government that report to the National Security Council. Cabinet Office Minister Abena Oppong-Asare is accountable to Parliament for the ISF. The Senior Responsible Owner is the Deputy National Security Adviser.

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You can access all core cloud computing services either directly through cloud service suppliers or indirectly with the support of a resell supplier. Core services include:

PaaS: provides platform tools needed to create applications that will provide a service over the internet (as well as other things).
IaaS: provides compute, storage, networking and other hardware capabilities
microservices such as third party subscription services that run in customer tenancies and are directly related to the usage, security, governance, optimisation and/or management of your core services

For more information on PaaS and IaaS, read the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) Definition of Cloud Computing. There is also the option to buy ongoing and value adding services, that are ancillary to your core cloud services from cloud partners and resellers, such as:

optimised billing and administration
‘FinOps’ tooling

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As part of the Team Hypersonics (UK) delivery strategy, the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S) has established the Hypersonic Technologies & Capability Development Framework Agreement (the Framework). The aim of the Framework is to accelerate development of the United Kingdom Hypersonic Strike Capability and to provide a route to market for future operational elements of hypersonic and adjacent technologies. The Framework will be used to facilitate collaboration between MoD, industry and academia to accelerate the acquisition of an advanced Hypersonic Strike Capability. This is the first framework re-opening. Services and supplies to be procured through the Framework are likely to include, but will not be limited to research, systems, components, technology, the provision of infrastructure, testing and other related expertise and materials across two categories, ‘functional components’ and ‘non-functional components’. Functional components could include liquid propellants, solid propellants, propulsion systems, airframes, flight control computer systems, guidance systems and sensors, communications and data links systems, system and parts integration, physical flight control systems, warheads, power supply and distribution, battery, actuators (fin & thrust control), high temperature materials and seekers. Non-functional components could include test and evaluation, platform integration, academic research, system design authority, modelling and simulation, specialists, integrated solution, thermal management, infrastructure, mission planning, assurance.

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"Our team We are a diverse team of military, civilian and contractor staff, based in Central London. We engage with ‘end users’ in Strategic Command [now CSOC] and across Defence to understand their problems and challenges. Through our network of innovation scouts, we also build relationships and unearth the most exciting and fast-moving technology and innovative solutions available to Defence. Whichever side of the model a project begins, we effectively act as a brokerage between problem and solution, managing the process to unlock new capabilities and value. Our wider team of experts across commercial, financial, security and integration ensure that we get the solutions into users’ hands in rapid order and with a good chance of converting a successful pilot into a sustained capability. Our aim Our aim is to deliver competitive advantage against the UK’s adversaries by unlocking novel and disruptive capabilities, through an opportunity-led and user-centred approach – with a particular focus on harnessing leading dual-purpose technology. We also aim to pioneer and champion methods that enable Defence to be “innovative by instinct”. We are focussed on mature solutions that can deliver impact at pace. We have a particular interest in repurposing high Technology Readiness Level (TRL) products and services from areas that do not traditionally have a Defence focus, to provide software, hardware, or to solve a process or people issue. How we do business with industry Our approach to doing business with industry varies depending on the type of project, and the nature of the problem/requirement. We take a portfolio approach, running different types of innovation projects: problem-led projects (our majority focus), where we start with a current end-user problem and scout for the best available solutions (whilst seeking to tackle any wider obstacles to exploiting/scaling, such as accreditation, policy, training requirements etc); thematic priority-led projects, where the organisation is trying to change in a particular direction, or grapple with an anticipated future need; technology opportunity-led projects, where we find a capability from industry that we believe could be highly impactful if repurposed for Defence – then seek user traction to exploit. For problem-led projects and thematic priority-led projects we will work with an end-user to refine the requirement sufficiently. Once refined we identify the most suitable route to market for a solution: one which is compliant with our procurement regulations and ensures best value for money for the taxpayer. This could include utilising existing routes to market such as the Crown Commercial Services (CCS) frameworks, running an Open/Restricted Competition through the Find a Tender Service or, where there is a robust justification to do so, taking a single source approach. We have the flexibility, and resource, to take a bespoke approach to each innovation project to ensure we are harnessing world-class technology and deriving maximum value for money for the taxpayer. For technology opportunity-led projects, our innovation scouts seek to proactively engage widely with industry – with a bias towards the technology sector, looking for dual-purpose technology with significant opportunity for Defence. We also engage through the various Defence and technology events, with venture capital investors, accelerators, and others to scout for opportunities. We are not resourced or mandated to run a ‘front door’ to triage approaches from industry at scale – although we do have a close relationship with DASA, who help us to horizon scan for unseen opportunities (they are focused on mid-TRL tech, whereas we are focused typically on re-purposing high-TRL tech).

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"We are the department for economic growth. We support businesses to invest, grow and export, creating jobs and opportunities across the country." Secretary of State for Business & Trade: Jonathan Reynolds MP Minister of State for Industry: Sarah Jones MP Minister of State for Investment: Baroness Gustafsson Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Services, Small Business & Exports: Gareth Thomas MP

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Responsibilities of the Department (according to Wikipedia) The department's focus was outlined by Downing Street as follows:

Delivering economic growth opportunities across the economy.
Backing business by improving access to finance and delivering a pro-enterprise regulatory system;
Promoting British businesses on the global stage and attracting high-value investment, including through high-quality Free Trade Agreements with India and other priority partners.
Promoting competitive markets and addressing market distorting practises to support growth whilst protecting consumers;
Championing free trade;
Ensuring economic security and supply chain resilience;
Supporting economic growth and innovation by making the most of Brexit freedoms and removing unnecessary regulatory burdens;
Delivering legislation on setting minimum service levels for priority public service sectors and to review, reform, retain, and/or repeal retained EU law by December 2023

First Sea Lord & Chief of Naval Staff: General Sir Gwyn JenkinsSecond Sea Lord: Vice Admiral Sir Martin ConnellAssistant Chief of Naval Staff: Director Navy Acquisition: Director People & Training: Director Develop: Rear Admiral James ParkinFleet Commander: Vide Admiral Andrew BurnsCommander Operations: Major-General Richard CantrillCommander Strike Force: Director Force Generation: Rear Admiral Stephen MoorhouseFinance Director: Nick Donlevy

"This framework will operate as the main substantive delivery mechanism for ASGARD; the British Army's flagship Transformative Capability Initiative (TCI). This project will deliver a central part of the Chief of General Staff's (CGS) Growth Through Transformation (GTT) strategy. This framework will focus on the 'Decide' element of the target acquisition cycle (Sense-Decide-Effect). ASGARD will focus on reinventing and transforming how land forces deliver operational decision-support and decision-making software by exploiting modern Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning (AI/ML) based digital technologies."

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See also

DDAfD pipeline notice

Article from Techerati

Founders and senior operators at DefTech start-ups and SMEs new to Defence who are trying to work out what and who they know and, very broadly, how everything fits (or doesn’t fit) together; how they need to prepare; who they need to talk to; where they need to get to.Marketing and Comms leads who want to understand their audiences beyond vague ‘senior decision maker’, ‘end user’ personas. Bid/capture/growth specialists. You’ll have a far more sophisticated understanding of deftech procurement than we ever will – but we’re hoping that this will serve as a useful prop to point to when you’re explaining your plans to your wider teams. Nobody knows defence business like those working in Defence, and nobody knows procurement like procurement professionals. That said, we’re quietly hoping that an outsider’s perspective will prove instructive to any MOD/public sector person who stumbles across this.

Provides access to technology strategy and service design as well as services to provide support with moving to the operational running of an IT estate. It also provides support for large projects, up to top secret classification and a range of other technology services such as:

provision and management of IT service desk
end user device support
network support
asset disposal and application maintenance
IT infrastructure support (for example, server and storage hardware)

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The Directorate-General for Defence Industry and Space (DG DEFIS) leads the European Commission’s activities in the European defence industry and European space sectors. DG DEFIS implements the Union’s Space Programme and ensures an innovative, and competitive defence industry. The Directorate-General for Defence Industry and Space (DG-DEFIS) is the European Commission's department tasked with strengthening the competitiveness and innovation of the European Defence industry by ensuring the evolution of an able European defence technological and industrial base. To do so, we enable investments to support defence supply chains, with a special attention on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). We also facilitate their involvement in cross-border partnerships through various tools such as the European Defence Fund (EDF). Our work is guided by the recently published European Defence Industrial Strategy (EDIS) and is implemented through a set of programmes and initiatives. The Commission's Directorate General for Defence Industry and Space (DG DEFIS) plays a pivotal role in the European Union Space Programme. Its activities include assessing current trends, identifying emerging challenges, and ensuring that the objectives of the Space Programme are aligned with broader EU priorities such as innovation, economic growth, and security.

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This dynamic purchasing system (DPS) is here to support the Emergency Services, Blue Light and other public sector bodies in the purchase of drones (UAVs) and associated products and drone services. Lot 1 - Supply of Drones, Maintenance and Accessories - Any aircraft operating or designed to operate autonomously or to be piloted remotely without a pilot on board- Maintenance and servicing of drones- Design and building of drones- Technical training on specific drones- Relevant software solutions, such as ground control stations and data management- Associated hardware such as docking stations, charging solutions and other safety related solutions – including signage such as ‘Dones in operation'- Drones with a managed service- Remotely operated vehicles (ground or submersibleLot 2 - Drone Services - Surveillance - Surveying - Inspection and data collection - Spraying - Firefighting - Mapping and data analysis - Transportation /delivery of goods or persons - Operator training - Managed services - Droneport infrastructure design / operations - Advice and support services related to drone operations - Managed services to include rental, leasing - Other tasks performed by drones

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We toyed with a variety of formats, from knowledge graphs to network maps, but all these seemed to lend the end result an unjustifiable air of certainty and scientific rigour. (Beware of certainty, by the way, especially when it’s from someone who’s angling for a place on your cap table.) The way we see it, the DefTech landscape is just that – a landscape. It’s something that’s developed over decades or even centuries. Something that keeps shifting. It’s not that it’s disorganised – more that it hasn’t been actively organised by some central, omnipotent authority. So while there are many established routes across the Valley of Death, there are no roads you need to stick to.Formal models can be pretty unforgiving in terms of ‘wrong’ and ‘right’. A map like this can accommodate a bit of uncertainty and ambiguity. Like the Iraq War veteran Kevin Powers wrote in Yellow Birds: '...the map would become less and less a picture of a fact and more a poor translation of memory in two dimensions [...] It wasn't much in the way of comfort, but everything has a little failure in it, and we still make do somehow.'

"The British Army presents PROGRAMME MERCURY; a catalyst for 2035 Science and Technology challenges and beyond, to industry today: enabling Army- wide transformation. By identifying and developing ‘generation-after-next’ technologies and capabilities, MERCURY will ensure enduring operational advantage against the challenges outlined within the Land Operating Concept (LOpC)."

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"The Army Research, Innovation and Experimentation Laboratory (ARIEL) is the Army’s solutions accelerator delivering novel approaches and new technology into the hands of the user at pace. Its role is threefold:

ARIEL allows the Army to test new and novel ideas, collecting evidence to ensure that the capability owner has enough evidence to make an informed decision at the balance of investment stage.
ARIEL also allows the Army to test and develop those new ideas that, due to the pace of technological change, have not been considered by the normal procurement process.
And finally, ARIEL allows the Army to link those who are developing new and novel solutions to our problems to the end user, those who are nearest the problems and are best placed to offer development advice.

The Army Innovation Team is ideally placed, with strong links to DASA, DSTL, DE&S, the Army’s Trials and Development Units, along with our own commercial support, to test and develop new ideas at pace. The Army Innovation Team has access to a variety of funding sources which are designed to be flexible and encourage innovative ideas."

Source

"The Open Call for Innovation allows innovative ideas to be proposed to Defence and Security stakeholders, even where a specific requirement has not been stipulated. It is a broad mechanism which allows innovators to present disruptive ideas which may otherwise be overlooked. The Open Call for Innovation consists of a number of competitions, including Innovation Focus Areas (IFAs), which run in cycles throughout the Calendar Year (CY)."

Source

See also

Past Innovation Focus Areas (IFAs)

Past Open Call for Innovation Cycles and associated competitions

"4 Capability & Innovation Squadron The Squadron, Based at RAF Leeming, consists of Application eXploitation (AX) Flight (Flt), Capability, Support and Exploit (CSE) Flt and Rapid Application Integration and Development (RAID) Flt.The Squadron provides technical support to interoperability, delivery of new concepts and the integration and exploitation of Communication, Information Systems (CIS). No.1 Group No 1 Group has responsibility for the vast majority of the RAF’s Front-Line facing Force Elements, including the Air Mobility Force; Air and Space Warfare Centre; Combat Air Force; and Intelligence Surveillance, Targeting and Reconnaissance (ISTAR) Force, to Understand and exploit the Battlespace to deliver decisive Air Power. No 1 Group trains, retains and empowers talented, professional and courageous people to deliver world-class Air Power. Through an intelligent use of resource and partnerships, the Group continually develops and tests operational excellence across all of its Force Elements to deliver decisive Air Power today, while being prepared to meet the security challenges of tomorrow. JADTEU The Joint Air Delivery Test and Evaluation Unit (JADTEU) is an Air and Space Warfare Centre Unit at RAF Brize Norton with approximately 105 (Royal Navy, Army, Royal Air Force and Civil Service) personnel, commanded by a Lieutenant Colonel. The primary role of JADTEU is to conduct operational trials and evaluation to develop the delivery by air of personnel, machines and material on behalf of sponsors."

Source

"Rapstone is the fastest connection to the heart of Army capability development, offering a streamlined, collaborative, and results-driven pathway to collaborate with the British Army. We're NOT a programme. We're a catalyst. Rapstone is a dedicated team bridging the gap between cutting-edge industry expertise, the evolving needs while delivering capability into the hands of the modern Warfighter. We're empowering industry leaders like you; to play a pivotal role in shaping the future of defence capability procurement and delivery. Driving a fielded capability inside 24 months from engagement into the hands of the modern Warfighter within a 5th generation battlespace. Our key priority areas are: ASGARD, Data & Digital, C-UAS, S-UAS, EMO Competence, Logistics and Support, Unmanned Ground Manoeuvre and Mine Clearance, Effectors, offerings that areTRL8/9"

Source

ininkling: Part of the Joint Force Intelligence Group, there's little in the public domain about CII

"Situated at Dorset Innovation Park, the Defence BattleLab is a result of a collaboration with the Ministry of Defence, Dorset Council and Dorset Local Enterprise Partnership. This pioneering and unique facility serves as a hub for end-users and experts from various defence sectors, facilitating collaboration and engagement with the MOD. The BattleLab aims to nurture and evolve innovative solutions by bringing together diverse minds to address complex challenges and emerging threats in defence."

Source

See also

BattleLab brochure

"Contracts Finder lets you search for information about contracts worth over £12,000 (including VAT) with the government and its agencies. You can use Contracts Finder to:

search for contract opportunities in different sectors
find out what’s coming up in the future
look up details of previous tenders and contracts"

Source

Further reading Sell goods and services to the public sector

"Crown Commercial Service (CCS), a Trading Fund and Executive Agency of the Cabinet Office, helps the public sector get better value when buying. We are procurement experts, helping the public sector buy common goods and services, so they can maximise every pound, meaning precious resources can go where they’re needed most. We’re responsible for:

providing maximum value to public sector organisations in their procurement of everyday goods and service
soperating as a Trading Fund under the Government Trading Funds Act 1973"

Source

ininkling: 'From April 2026, GCA (Government Commercial Agency) will unite all commercial delivery expertise currently operating across the Cabinet Office's contral commercial teams and Crown Commercial Service. '

See also

Become a supplier on a Crown Commercial Service framework agreement

5 steps to becoming a CCS supplier – Procurement Essentials

"The FASTER programme, sponsored by the Defence Nuclear Organisation and delivered to the Submarine Delivery Agency by Navy Digital [...] aims to build on the innovative spirit that traditionally characterises UK military operations[...]. FASTER not only showcases an advanced Platform-as-a-Service concept that enables the loose coupling of small components (microservices) by insisting that they bring their own support for assurance, but also pioneers an equally modern approach to contracting by developing a supplier community that is collaborative, diverse, inclusive, and enabling of all Defence Lines of Development."

Source

Further reading: FASTER: Community and Collaboration Charter

"The RAF has introduced a new uncrewed aircraft into operational service called StormShroud. It is the first of a new family of Autonomous Collaborative Platforms (ACP) which will revolutionise the RAF’s advantage in the most contested battlespaces. StormShroud will support RAF F-35B Lightning and Typhoon pilots by blinding enemy radars, which increases the survivability and operational effectiveness of our crewed aircraft. Uncrewed Air Systems (UAS) are not new to the RAF, and StormShroud has been developed using lessons from the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, as well as other operational theatres around the world. The RAF's exploration of ACPs is part of its broader strategy to embrace technological advancements and maintain its position as a world-leading air force. The ACP Strategy is clear that the best way to optimise our strength against increasingly sophisticated adversaries is through a blend of crewed and un-crewed autonomous platforms operating together. It’s a more agile, adaptable and cost-effective model that significantly reduces the risks faced by pilots in conventional aircraft when flying and fighting in hostile environments." See also the RAF Autonomous Collaborative Platform Strategy

Source

"The Weapons Sector Research Framework (WSRF) enables the UK government to quickly and efficiently place contracts for scientific and technical research and development. WSRF is designed to help MOD carry out weapons science and technology research, and accelerate the development of emerging and disruptive weapons technologies. It provides research and direct support to operational requirements in

kinetic effectors
non-kinetic effectors
sensors
architectures

By bringing together government, industry (including SMEs) and academia in a community of interest, WSRF helps ensure the UK has essential technical expertise and facilities, and encourages innovation and growth."

Source

Kalray Aqark Swegan Arceon Black Semiconductor Nordic Air Defence Fractile

"The Defence Supplier Capability Development Programme (DSCDP) is the MOD’s commitment to supporting the development of a more productive and competitive UK defence sector through bespoke business development support to UK-based small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and mid-tier suppliers. The programme will offer UK-based suppliers growing in the sector up to £200,000 worth of customised support over the course of a year, tailored to their specific developmental requirements. This support will be funded by the MOD, with companies being required to demonstrate matched resource commitment through the time they spend on improvement activities. To be eligible for DSCDP support, your company must be a UK-registered legal entity, based in the UK, with defence outputs taking place in the UK, and:

be registered as a UK limited company on Companies House
the business can be foreign-owned, but must comply with the National Security and Investments Act
be an existing defence supplier engaged in defence-related activity, defined as an activity which supports the production and delivery of military or dual-use goods or services (including subcontract work) which has a defence customer as an end user (UK and international industry, UK and international governments)
commit to providing the time, resources and commitment required to undertake intensive business improvement activity

There are no nationality restrictions on staff. For more information or to register an expression of interest, please visit www.dscdp.co.uk."

Source

"We are a statutory public corporation, sponsored by the Secretary of State for Defence, formed in 1986 by virtue of the Oil and Pipelines Act 1985. We manage, operate and maintain 6 Naval Oil Fuel Depots and a Petroleum Storage Depot on behalf of the Ministry of Defence."

Source

"Astra is driving an RAF that thrives on innovation, challenges the status quo, and is committed to continuous improvement. [...] Astra encourages our people to collaborate challenge, be innovative, and make the most of their skills and opportunities to develop by harnessing the skills and creativity of the whole force. This includes Service Personnel, Civil Servants, Contractors and Industry Partners."

Source

See also: Campaign to Build the Next Generation Air Force

The British Army seeks to develop an Uncrewed Air System (UAS) to pair with the Apache AH-64E attack helicopter as an ACP. The ACP will operate in a highly autonomous, ‘commanded not controlled’ manner to perform multi-mission tasks in contested battlespace, including reconnaissance, target acquisition, strike, countermeasure defeat, and integration with Launched Effects (LE). The ACP will enhance the lethality and survivability of the crewed platform and do so with a smaller logistic footprint and lower maintenance requirement relative to the crewed platform.See also: RAF Projects & Programmes > Air Autonomous Collaborative Platform

Source

Project NYX [is] the delivery of a Capability Concept Demonstrator (CCD) for the Land Autonomous Collaborative Platform (ACP) project.Project NYX is a flagship opportunity for industry to partner with Defence and shape the next generation of autonomous systems. The Army is seeking to develop an Uncrewed Air System (UAS) to pair with the Apache AH-64E attack helicopter as an ACP. The ACP will operate in a highly autonomous, "commanded not controlled" manner to perform multi-mission tasks in contested airspace, including reconnaissance, target acquisition, strike, countermeasure defeat, and integration with Launched Effects (LE). The ACP will enhance the lethality and survivability of the crewed platform and do so with a smaller logistic footprint and lower maintenance burden relative to the crewed platform.

Source

The Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre (JTAC) is the UK’s independent authority for all-source terrorism assessment. JTAC is based within MI5 and reports to the Director General, but their assessments are made independently. JTAC sets the national terrorism threat level as well as the threat level from Northern Ireland Related Terrorism in Northern Ireland and issues warnings of threats and other terrorism-related subjects to government departments and law enforcement. It was founded in 2003 and forms a critical part of the UK’s counter terrorism system, providing assessments of the terrorist threats in the UK and around the world. The information supplied by JTAC helps to inform protective security measures and advice. Its analysis provides the evidence base for much of the UK’s counter-terrorism policy at home and overseas. Where necessary, this information will be shared with the public or relevant industries.

Source

"The Progeny Maritime Research Framework (PMRF) is required to underpin delivery of the UK’s maritime S&T (Science & Technology) capability from within Dstl and the wider MOD. Previously Dstl has utilised specialist contracting routes to achieve the aspirations highlighted above, but they only ever addressed a subset of the scope identified for Progeny. The purpose of the Progeny Framework is to provide a flexible, enduring and responsive contracting mechanism to deliver maritime-related S&T, enabled by the breadth of relevant capabilities which exist across Industry and Academia. The Progeny Framework will be used to deliver maritime-related S&T. It is anticipated that the contract will be required to place work worth up to £152M for Dstl and wider MOD. This will cover everything from low TRL (Technology Readiness Levels) ‘exploratory’ activities through to high TRL activities to de-risk solutions for potential future procurement programmes. The framework scope will cover delivery of S&T for all maritime-related military capabilities both above and under water, including:

Anti-submarine warfare
Anti-surface warfare
Geospatial intelligence
Integrated air defence
Littoral manoeuvre
Mine countermeasures
Submarine capability
Maritime security operations

Overall, the Progeny Framework is designed to de-risk technologies, concepts and processes which enable the UK to deliver tasks and develop understanding and models from and within the maritime environment."

Source

To quote the FCDO website’s ‘About Us’ section in full: We lead the UK’s diplomatic, development and consular work around the world. Wikipedia, if less authoritative, is also a little less tight lipped: According to the FCDO website, the department's key responsibilities (as of 2020) are as follows:

Safeguarding the UK's national security by countering terrorism and weapons proliferation, and working to reduce conflict.
Building the UK's prosperity by increasing exports and investment, opening markets, ensuring access to resources, and promoting sustainable global growth.
Supporting British nationals around the world through modern and efficient consular services.

In April 2006, a new executive agency was established, FCO Services (now FCDO Services), to provide corporate service functions. FCDO Services operates globally in 250 destinations across 168 countries; with office regions covering Asia & Pacific, Europe & Central Asia, Middle East & Africa and The Americas. The services FCDO Services offer are "Digital and Cloud", "Securing your Buildings and Spaces", "Logistics", "Translation and Interpreting" and "Technical Security from UK NACE". It is accountable to the secretary of state for foreign, Commonwealth and development affairs, and provides secure support services to the FCDO, other government departments and foreign governments and bodies with which the UK has close links.[59] Since 2011, FCDO Services has been developing the Government Secure Application Environment (GSAE) on a secure cloud computing platform to support UK government organisations.[60] It also manages the UK National Authority for Counter Eavesdropping (UK NACE) which helps protect UK assets from physical, electronic and cyber attack.

Current StratCom leadership (Jun 25): General Sir Jim Hockenhull KBE ADC Gen, Commander of Strategic Command Lieutenant General Sir Tom Copinger-Symes KCB CBE, Deputy Commander of Strategic Command Lieutenant General Nick Perry DSO MBE, Chief of Joint Operations (CJO) Vice Admiral Andy Kyte CB FCILT, Chief Defence Logistics Support See also other 3* staff: Chief of Defence Logistics & Support; Director General Defence Medical Services; Chief Information Officer; Chief of Defence Intelligence; Director General Joint Force Development

DSEI I/ITSEC IT2EC RIAT Defence Suppliers Forum DAIC Connect Combined Naval Event London Tech Week InfoSecurity Europe Thrive: AI Security & Efficiency Counter Terror Expo Cyber Security Expo Security Cleared Expo International Security Expo International Cyber Expo Cyber Security Expo Cloud & Cyber Security Expo Undersea Defence Technology National Cyber Security Show Farnborough Atlantic Future Forum Defence Procurement & Supply Chain Summit MOD DUxDA SDSC-UK Land Warfare Conference RUSI Military Technology Conference International Armoured Vehicles Conference Defence Procurement, Research, Technology & Exportability (DPRTE)

NB This excellent list of webinars, meet-ups and conferences for bid & proposal professionals

We support the Prime Minister and ensure the effective running of government. We are also the corporate headquarters for government, in partnership with HM Treasury, and we take the lead in certain critical policy areas. We have responsibility for:

supporting collective government, helping to ensure the effective development, coordination and implementation of policy
supporting the National Security Council and the Joint Intelligence Organisation, coordinating the government’s response to crises and managing the UK’s cyber security
promoting efficiency and reform across government through innovation, better procurement and project management, and by transforming the delivery of services
promoting the release of government data, and making the way government works more transparent
creating an exceptional Civil Service, improving its capability and effectiveness
political and constitutional reform

Source

Our responsibilities Led by the Chief of Defence Intelligence, Adrian Bird, DI work in close partnership with other UK intelligence agencies GCHQ, MI5 and MI6, to provide intelligence products for policy makers in the Ministry of Defence and UK Government. Our organisation Defence Intelligence has around 5,000 staff, of which two thirds are armed forces personnel and one third are civilians. Our people are based mainly at locations in London, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire. Defence Intelligence also has national responsibilities to wider departments across His Majesty’s Government, on top of its key defence outputs, The National Centre for Geospatial Intelligence (NCGI) is one of these such areas.

Source

"EDP is the default route for the procurement of engineering services for DE&S, and is available to other MOD departments and agencies. EDP is delivered through the Aurora Engineering Partnership – a unique partnership between QinetiQ, AtkinsRéalis and BMT that is supported with a world-class network of specialist providers. The EDP programme provides a strategic approach to the sourcing and provision of skills to meet the current and projected demands of the MOD. Driving both efficiency gains and operational benefits through innovation and collaboration, EDP is helping to reduce the costs of engineering services while delivering the best equipment and support service for UK Armed Forces."

Source

See also

EDP Annual Review

"The SME Portal was created in response to the Ministry of Defence’s SME Action Plan and with the JOSCAR Governance Group members. This means your customers will be more likely to use it to find new capabilities. The Portal allows suppliers to demonstrate their readiness to sell products and services into the sector and helps buyers find relevant suppliers. Once listed on the Portal, you can be easily found by members of the JOSCAR Buyer community."

Source

"The User requires a cost-effective, tactical (>600km) ballistic missile, capable of being safely ground launched from a mobile platform in a high threat tactical environment, navigating to and accurately striking a user-programmed co-ordinate. It shall be: operable in harsh physical environments, day and night, of low multispectral signature, resilient in a complex Electromagnetic environment (EME), including within a GNSS denied & degraded environment, and resistant against targeted EW attack and spoofing.Subject to potential future contract, manufacturing shall be scalable to meet operational requirements at a minimum of 10 units per month, with the ability to further increase."

Source

See also: Project Nightfall: the UK’s request for a tactical ballistic missile

"Find a Tender is where public sector buyers publish notices about procurements and contracts that suppliers can search and apply for. You'll need a GOV.UK One Login to sign in to this service. You can create one if you do not already have one. You can save searches and get notification emails. You must sign in before registering a buyer or supplier organisation. UPDATE: Find a Tender Service is now the central digital platform for public procurement:

Featuring a simple registration and identification for both suppliers and buyers.
Storing suppliers' core business details that can be used for multiple bids.
Enabling easy management and updating of core information quickly, and shared easily between suppliers, eSenders and buyers.
Making public procurement opportunities visible making it easier to search at no cost and set up alerts to tender of interest for suppliers.
Allowing for procurement noticing throughout the procurement lifecycle.
Capturing procurement data and eventually will create dashboards to analyse that data."

Source

See also

Defence Digital Foundry

Digital Commercial Roadmap

"Defence Futures (formerly Development, Concepts and Doctrine Centre) aims to challenge the status quo, inspire debate, and provide world-class concepts, futures, and legal products. This is achieved through producing strategic foresight and concepts, underpinned by evidence-based research and experimentation.

The Concepts Team develop and assure threat-informed concepts to inform and influence the evolution of policy, force design and capability development.
The Strategic Foresight Team provide the threat-informed, long-term global strategic context for policy, strategy and capability development.
The Insights, Analysis, Research and Challenge Team provide analysis and research to inform and support the continuous development of policy and strategy within Defence.
The Legal Team support the development of Defence Futures outputs through the provision of legal advice and undertake legal reviews of new weapons and means of warfare."

Source

While not part of the FCDO, GCHQ answers to the Foreign Secretary "We are the UK's intelligence, security and cyber agency. Our mission is to help keep the country safe. Mission Areas

Counter Terrorism - Stopping terrorist attacks in the UK and against our interests overseas
Cyber Security - Making the UK the safest place to live and do business online
Strategic Advantage - Managing the threats from hostile states, promoting the UK's prosperity and shaping the international environment
Serious & Organised Crime - Reducing the social and financial harm that serious and organised crime causes to the UK
Support to Defence - Protecting Defence personnel and assets and supporting an integrated approach to war fighting

Capabilities

Collection - governed by strict legislation, we use a range of methods to gather communications and data that we believe has intelligence value
Analysis - we analyse the communications and data that we collect to produce intelligence reports
Effects - we have a range of online capabilities that can lead to a real world outcome"

Source

"The Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) has set up a £42.5m research partnership to develop ground-breaking new materials. The Defence Materials Centre of Excellence (DMEx) will bring together world-leading UK experts in a national effort to accelerate advances in defence material technology for extreme physical environments. The DMEx will research, create, and prototype new materials for the armed forces that can survive in the harshest conditions such as:

temperatures of 1,000 °C
polar to tropical operations
high impact vibrations
shock
blasts
extreme water depth

Advanced materials are vital to keeping the UK safe – ranging from body armour for our personnel, to the protection of sensitive electronics in satellites from radiation damage and corrosion-resistant submarine components. The Henry Royce Institute for advanced materials, which operates its hub at the University of Manchester, will lead the centre of excellence with 23 other partners from academia, industry, and research organisations such as the Catapult Network."

Source

"The [Defence Tech Scaler] will engage, nurture and grow solutions in Defence and provide a platform to scale technology through to the hands of the warfighter. It encompasses coherent involvement from technology, finance, cyber, commercial & strategy and is a co-investment with industry to achieve success in innovation.Defence Tech Scaler will make UK Defence the ‘client of choice’ by making it accessible and scalable. The marketplace as part of Defence Tech Scaler will allow MOD to tap into innovation quickly and provide suppliers a platform to sell their services."

Source

MOD also engages with regional defence and security clusters. These clusters allow industry and government to share ideas, promoting collaboration and commercialisation. MOD currently works with the: South West Regional Defence and Security Cluster Three Counties Regional Defence and Security Clusters Greater Lincolnshire Defence and Security Cluster London Regional Defence and Security Cluster North East Regional Defence and Security Cluster Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Chilterns Regional Defence and Security Cluster North West Regional Defence and Security Cluster Western Regional Defence and Security Cluster

The National Space Operations Centre (NSpOC) is led by the UK Space Agency and UK Space Command in partnership with the Met Office. Space domain awareness – the ability to understand and respond to what is happening in space – underpins all space activities and is a critical requirement for delivering a wide range of UK civil and military space objectives. NSpOC combines and coordinates civil and military space domain awareness capabilities to enable UK space operations and protect our interests in space and on Earth from space related threats, risks, and hazards. With a combined annual budget of over £20 million and approximately 70 civilian and military personnel, NSpOC plays a vital role in ensuring space remains safe, sustainable and accessible for all. Our mission sets include:

protecting and defending the UK’s space interests
missile warning
uncontrolled re-entry early warning
in-space collision avoidance
fragmentation alerting and monitoring
support to licence monitoring
space weather notifications and advice

Source

"The National Cyber Security Centre, a part of GCHQ, helps businesses, the public sector and individuals protect the online services and devices that we all depend on. The NCSC was formed by combining separate parts of government, MI5 and GCHQ to create the National Technical Authority for cyber security. We lead the UK’s defence against the most advanced cyber threats, including those from nation states, hackers, and cyber criminals."

Source

Defence wants more non-traditional suppliers, and non-traditional suppliers want in. But whether you’re buying or selling, the process is wildly complicated and often pretty opaque. Established suppliers have a perfectly reasonable reason to keep their institutional knowledge to themselves. It is, after all, a competitive edge. We want the underdogs – who tend to be our clients – to feel 'the stubborn ounces of our weight'.We’ve worked with around 40 DefTech developers in the past 7 years – a couple of Primes but most of them start-ups and SMEs. We’ve worked with founders, with commercial leads, with bid teams and marketing functions. We’ve asked some seriously stupid questions of some highly experienced folk ranging from data scientists and software engineers to CEOs and 4* Generals. We have, in short, learned a little about a lot. So if we’ve got a valid contribution to make then it’s thanks to the breadth rather than the depth of our experience.

"NATO’s essential and enduring purpose is to safeguard the freedom and security of all its members. It does this through political and military means, ensuring the collective defence of all Allies, against all threats, from all directions. Security in our daily lives is key to our well-being. NATO’s purpose is to guarantee the freedom and security of its members through political and military means. POLITICAL – NATO promotes democratic values and enables members to consult and cooperate on defence and security-related issues to solve problems, build trust and, in the long run, prevent conflict. MILITARY – NATO is committed to the peaceful resolution of disputes. If diplomatic efforts fail, it has the military power to undertake crisis-management operations. These are carried out under the collective defence clause of NATO's founding treaty – Article 5 of the Washington Treaty or under a United Nations mandate, alone or in cooperation with other countries and international organisations."

Source

See also

https://www.nato.int/nato-welcome/index.html

https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/structure.htm

https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/who_is_who.htm

The EDF is the Commission's instrument to support Research and Development in defence. Its main goals are: To promote cooperation between companies, including SMEs and research actors throughout the Union. To boost defence capability development through investments. To help EU companies develop cutting-edge and interoperable defence technologies and equipment.

Source

SensusQ Inex Revobeam AVoptics SECQAI Cervus QuadSAT Siren Living Optics Disruptive Industries Matrix.org Labrys Element SCALINX Himera Watch Bird KNL Networks

Rcam Adarga RFence Focal Point Positioning Evitado Technologies Ajax Systems Deniable Mind Foundry KX Technologies Oxford Dynamics Cosimmetry MARSS Smart Audio Technologies ROKE RipJar MindLink

"Combat ISTAR is a new philosophy that seeks to break legacy thinking that associates the roles of airpower with specific platform types. The term Combat ISTAR conveys the wider ISTAR contribution and potential of various platforms, and the requirement for information superiority in current and future conflict. Combat ISTAR encompasses three separate, but interdependent, roles of airpower - Control of the Air; Intelligence and Situational Awareness; and Attack - and applies a systems approach to deliver more than the sum of the parts. Combat ISTAR emphasises and exploits the increasing blurring of the edges between these airpower roles, without challenging their primary purpose. Combat ISTAR is defined as the provision of assured Intelligence and Situational Awareness derived from the synergistic employment of networked air, space and cyber systems in complex and contested operating environments, potentially in tandem with responsive kinetic and influence effects."

Source

"NVFi is an innovative commercial vehicle developed by Commercial X and the Defence Innovation Unit to accelerate the delivery of novel technological goods and services across government. The NVFi model is a Marketplace of pre-accredited Technology Providers which the MOD and pan-government participators can access via Constellia to drive innovation at pace and scale. The scope of the NVfI framework covers fourteen science and technology areas of significance to the national security and defence community, covering goods and ancillary products as well as associated consultancy, engineering, research and development and systems integration services. Innovative technology categories include:

Audio & Visual Processing
Commercial Space, Drones & Platforms
Behavioural Analysis
Internet of Things (IOT)
Cyber Security
Quantum Technologies
AI & Analytics
Biological and Medical Technologies
Financial Technologies
Novel Data Transport and Future Telecoms
Robotics
Sensors, Novel Materials and Power Sources
Identity Technologies
Future Computing

Source

"Themed Competitions exist to offer suppliers the opportunity to submit proposals around specific government areas of interest. Themed competitions may only run for a short time and have set closing dates."

Source

See also

Past themed competitions

In CSOC's own words

…This announcement comes alongside another significant development, with UK Strategic Command being renamed as the Cyber & Specialist Operations Command (CSOC) from 1 September 2025. This change reflects the Command’s evolved role and enhanced responsibilities following the SDR, particularly its leadership of the cyber domain, which the SDR demanded a greater focus on across defence and government as a whole. It also follows the MOD having to protect UK military networks against more than 90,000 ‘sub-threshold’ attacks in the last two years. The new name firmly places leadership of this crucial domain for defence and the Armed Forces with the new Command. It also better represents CSOC’s ‘Lead Command’ responsibilities for those specialist capabilities critical to operational success, including Intelligence, Special Forces, deployed medical capabilities, and Command and Control through the Permanent Joint Headquarters (PJHQ).

Source

Cyber We are responsible for defending the UK in cyberspace. We lead on integrating cyber effects into operational planning. And through our partnership with GCHQ, we deliver offensive cyber capabilities that give the UK a decisive edge. Specialist operations Information dominance: Shaping how information flows in conflict zones and providing secure IT systems that keep our forces connected globally Joint operations: Planning and running complex military operations that bring together land, sea, air, space and the electromagnetic capabilities Intelligence: Turning raw data into actionable intelligence that helps government and military leaders make informed decisions Medical: Ensuring our armed forces get the best healthcare and mental wellness care they need to stay fit and ready for duty Education & training: Building the skills our military and civil servants need to operate in tomorrow’s battlespace Enabling space operations: Protecting UK interests beyond Earth’s atmosphere Special Forces support: Enabling our most sensitive operations Global reach: Our Integrated Global Defence Network and our Overseas Bases provide the infrastructure that lets UK forces operate anywhere in the world [Source: UK StratCom] Orgs within [StratCom]: Joint Forces Cyber Group Defence Intelligence Joint Intelligence Training Group Directorate of Joint Capability Directorate of Resources & Policy Directorate of Special Forces Locations

Permanent Joint Headquarters (Northwood)
Integrated Warfare Centre (Shrivenham)
MOD Corsham

Global Operations Security Control Centre
Joint Cyber Unit
Joint Security Co-ordination Centre
Land Information Assurance Group
10th Signal Regiment
600 Signal Troop

MOD Corsham

Global Operations Security Control Centre
Joint Cyber Unit
Joint Security Co-ordination CentreLand Information Assurance Group10th Signal Regiment600 Signal Troop

"The Royal Air Force's Rapid Capabilities Office (RCO) supports the delivery of capability to our Armed Forces personnel. RCO programmes extend beyond equipment delivery into information analysis, and people and process improvements. Through this, it aims to enhance capability delivered to the front line. It also explores opportunities presented by emerging technologies, and leverages diversity in thought with novel and innovative ways of working."

Source

"Under the Secretary of State and Ministers, UK Defence will now be led by a strengthened Department of State, a fully-fledged Military Strategic Headquarters, a new National Armaments Director Group, and the Defence Nuclear Enterprise. Our new leadership “Quad” - the Permanent Secretary, Chief of the Defence Staff, National Armaments Director, and Chief of Defence Nuclear - will ensure that their teams work together across these structures to deliver our key defence departmental outcomes in collaboration. Defence Reform is designed to introduce new integrated ways of working together and making individuals more accountable – the driving principles of the government’s Defence Reform agenda. To enable these new areas to be set up for success, supporting changes are being made on 31 March 2025 that will drive One Defence ways of working. This includes establishing streamlined enterprise governance under a new look Executive Committee and a reduction in supporting boards – these will only be held at key decision points to ensure decisions are made at pace. This new model will utilise many of our statutory boards and committees, outlined below. Updates and a full description of the new governance model for Defence will be published on this page in due course."

Source

In UKSC's own words SKYNET is the MOD’s satellite communications (SATCOM) capability. It’s a family of military communications satellites which provide strategic communication services to the UK armed forces and its allies. SKYNET 5 is the most recent generation of these UK military satellites. The SKYNET 6 Programme is exploiting technological advances to deliver the next generation of SATCOM to the MOD using new space assets and a way to monitor and control them. These assets will be supported by additional commercial services to provide a reliable and robust communications service.

Source

Brinker AI pulled together this list, dated June 2025 Narrative intelligence Brinker Refute Edge Theory Blackbird AI Vinesight Egregious Data Vendors Bright Data Vetric Maltego Socialgist Web-IQ Shodan OSINT Industries Social Links Pipl Censys Social listening Meltwater Sprinklr Brandwatch Research organisations CRC Graphik Newsguard DFRLab Bellingcat Cyber Intelligence & Operations Ghost Shift 9500 Group Remedy Colab Argyle Moonshot Primer Dark Web Monitoring ShadowDragon Kela DarkOwl Cybersixgill

Network & bot analysis Next-Dim XPOZ Cyabra Logically Zignal Labs Osavul Peakmetrics Alethea External Threat Intelligence Cognyte Zerofox Flashpoint Crowdstrike Disruptive Industries Rapid7 Recorded Future Intel471 Penlink Dataminr Deepfake detection Pindrop FARx Group Sensity Reality Defender Clarity AU10TIX

We earn a respectable living equipping developers with the assets they'll need to survive and thrive in the Valley. That’s what we’re really good at and that’s what we charge for. This map, on the other hand, is some mixture of experience, intuition and guesswork.More importantly, if this was behind a paywall it would defeat the object of the exercise. And given that it’s almost entirely third-party content, it would probably be illegal – not to mention unethical – to cut a new tread on it and flog it as ‘new’. We can only make this map more accurate and useful if people are willing to tell us how. The more people who feed back, the better. That’s why we’re relying on Cunningham’s Law: The best way to get the right answer on the internet is not to ask a question, it’s to post the wrong answer.

All public sector organisations can access both bespoke professional services and commercial ‘off the shelf’ software specific to data and analytics. They can:

Access a wide range of specialist suppliers who can provide for a variety of needs, including:
niche work packages
complete data service transformations
new service builds
a thorough list of related ‘off the shelf’ software services

Design, build and run professional services covering the following capbilities:

advanced analytics and cognitive solutions
data risking
data management and acquisition
platform services
reporting and dashboards
search and discovery services

Off the shelf refers to software that is available to buy immediately and has not been specifically designed or custom made to meet your individual needs and covers:

big data management
data mining, risking and science (analysing large databases to generate new information)
machine learning and Artificial Intelligence (AI)
reporting and analytics
search and discovery

Source

"The BattleLab Co-Collaboration Space is a dedicated online platform within Defence Ideas, designed to facilitate collaboration with external parties."

Source

See also

Astrid on the BAE website

"This agreement can be used by all public sector buyers, including those involved in defence and security. It covers goods and services related to space and geospatial technologies. These include satellite communications, geospatial and remote sensing, space domain awareness, space command and control and advisory, consultancy and training."

Source

The National Crime Agency leads the UK’s fight to cut serious and organised crime, protecting the public by targeting and pursuing those criminals who pose the greatest risk to the UK. The National Crime Agency’s mission is to protect the public from serious and organised crime. We do this by: Degrading the most harmful organised crime groups that pose a threat to the UK; Leading the national operational response to serious and organised crime in the UK We use advanced data analysis and intelligence collection to find and target the criminals that pose the greatest threat to the public, institutions and infrastructure. Our operational teams work to bring these criminals to justice, dismantle their groups and degrade the international networks that support them.

Source

"The Submarine Delivery Agency (SDA) is part of the UK’s Ministry of Defence (MOD). The SDA was established to strengthen the procurement, in-service support and disposal of UK nuclear submarines – some of the most complex programmes in the world. We provide assured capabilities to the Royal Navy that are crucial to the delivery and maintenance of the Continuous at Sea Deterrent (CASD). The SDA forms part of the Defence Nuclear Enterprise (DNE) and works with a range of Government organisations and industry partners. This enables us to deliver our purpose: ‘to be the Defence Nuclear Enterprise’s delivery agent for submarines’. Collectively, we work to deliver the UK’s Nuclear Deterrent as a National Endeavour. Prior to becoming an Executive Agency in 2018, the SDA was part of DE&S. Although now a separate agency, the SDA still works closely with DE&S on several key projects."

Source

"In supporting the MOD to meet its overall purpose, the SDA has key areas of delivery. These are set out in our purpose which is to:

maintain CASD by safely delivering available, capable and reliable in-service submarines and systems
lead the design and construction of all new UK submarines and, working with our customers and suppliers, bring them into service as effectively and efficiently as possible
manage the delivery of the nuclear infrastructure needed to support the submarine fleet including maintenance operations and new construction
safely dispose of submarines that are no longer in service
ensure that we retain and develop the submarine technology base so that it meets our future requirements and retains our capability advantage
support and fulfil our roles in international partnerships
develop a sustainable industrial base for the Submarine Enterprise that is able to support all requirements efficiently, sustainably, safely and securely. We will deliver value for money across all our programmes through achieving an optimal balance of safety, time, quality and cost"

Source

"From its inception in 2003, Allied Command Transformation has demonstrated the importance of transformation and development as continuous drivers for change – change that will ensure the relevance of the Alliance in a rapidly evolving and complex global security environment. Allied Command Transformation is organized around four principal functions:

Strategic Thinking
Development of Capabilities
Education, Training and Exercises
Cooperation and Engagement"

Source

Influential [members’] groups full of highly expert people. Chief Disruptor D Group Pivot Labs GALLOS Alliance Karve Innovation Network Women in Defence MissionLink UK Drone Major Supplier Network High Value Manufacturing Catapult

"Defence Digital Commercial, overseen by Victoria Cope (Commercial Director), is responsible for a vast portfolio of complex contracts worth £2 billion per year. This is delivered through our network of ver 300 suppliers. We lead digital commercial colleagues from across the enterprise to develop and deliver a single digital category strategy to deliver products and services that are aligned into market defined categories. This will effectively manage the total £4.7 billion digital spend that sits across the whole of Defence."

Source

See also

Defence Digital Commercial - the shop window for innovation

"AWE Nuclear Security Technologies’ purpose is to protect the UK through nuclear science and technology. Our mission is to design and manufacture warheads and provide nuclear services to meet the needs of defence. Our work to supply and service the warheads that support the Government’s policy to maintain a continuous at-sea deterrent 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, discourages the most severe threats to our nation, and to our allies. In July 2021, AWE plc became a non-departmental public body owned by the Ministry of Defence (MOD). Our Chief Executive Officer is accountable to the Chief of Defence Nuclear at the MOD. We’re regulated by the Office for Nuclear Regulation, the UK’s independent nuclear regulator for safety, security and safeguards, and the Environment Agency, who look at all aspects of AWE Nuclear Security Technologies operations that may impact our environment."

Source

Beam dotOcean Skarv Lobster Robotics Elwave Sotiria Water Linked SEABER Hefring Marine Havguard Maritime Robotics Kraken Technology Optics11 Kongberg Ferrotech

"Project ASGARD will enhance the Army’s ability to find (‘recce’) and destroy (‘strike’) enemy targets. It brings together digital networks and data, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and intelligence capabilities with firepower to find and strike enemy forces at greater distances than ever before across the battlespace. It will fully integrate surveillance capabilities (including cyber and space) with firepower (such as artillery, long-range missiles, aircraft, and single-use uncrewed aerial systems) via the digital targeting web[...]. This will provide machine-speed decision support through AI. The Army will scale and share the concept across Defence, allies, and partners so that it becomes a force multiplier."

Source

See also: ASGARD is Unveiled from Resilience Media

"WAVELL will determine from first principles – grounded in adversary and real-world considerations – how the British Army offers most significant value to Defence and its allies against the challenges we will likely face over the next decade. WAVELL will produce a revised foundational concept, which will explore how the Army of 2035 can make the most telling contribution in deterring adversary aggression and, when necessary, warfighting; fostering stability; ‘sub-threshold competition’ and protecting the homeland – in short, how we fight and how we operate. This ‘theory of victory’ for UK land power will be fit for the age of autonomous machines, artificial intelligence, ubiquitous digital connectivity and abundant information; one that is capable of meeting the challenges presented by competing states both above and below the threshold of conflict, and by ever more sophisticated violent extremists. WAVELL will define how the Army best helps the nation win in competition and conflict, operating at the heart of an integrated, coalition and multi-domain effort. The resulting foundational concept will drive the design of the Future Force (i.e. the Army of the 2030s). As importantly, it will also inform the implementation of Future Soldier, and its subsequent iterative optimisation during the remainder of the 2020s."

Source

"The Ministry of Defence (MOD)’s Acquisition Pipeline is a forward look at potential procurement activity. The information presented is for information only and reflects MOD’s anticipated procurement pipeline. MOD will review the number of procurements it is able to share with industry through future updates to the pipeline. Neither the publication of this pipeline, nor any of the information presented in it, should be taken as a commitment or representation on the part of MOD (or any other organisation) to enter into a contractual arrangement or to proceed with a procurement. Circumstances may change and we cannot guarantee that the requirements, contract value, and/or timeline will be as stated. There may also be further contracting activity that takes place that we are not currently aware of and which may therefore not appear on this Pipeline. The sourcing route for procurements featured in this pipeline has not been determined. For example, whether the procurement will be sourced competitively or single source is shown only as a guide at this stage. The MOD cannot guarantee that these opportunities will be available to all suppliers."

Source

HologateSkyral Levato AS Cervus 4C Strategies Senseglove VRAI PSS – Logics7 BlinkTroll IMPETUS Drill EODynamics MXR Vrgineers Kognitic Spark ZenithVector HAVIK Hadean Nexus Training Solutions Xiphos

"Dynamic markets are essentially a list of qualified suppliers who can provide a particular range of products or services. A dynamic market remains open to new suppliers joining or leaving the list at any time across the market’s lifetime. There is no limit on the number of suppliers that can join a dynamic market. This is different to how suppliers are awarded on to open frameworks or closed frameworks, where the list of awarded suppliers stays unchanged for the agreement’s lifespan or is only updated at certain limited times. In a dynamic market, you can access suppliers that have been assessed to have the legal, financial and technical ability to fulfil public sector contracts. Dynamic markets act as a replacement under the Procurement Act 2023 for Dynamic Purchasing Systems (DPSs). The main difference between the two is that DPSs were limited to providing commonly purchased products under the previous regulations. In comparison, dynamic markets can be set up for procurement of all kinds of goods, services or works."

Source

`Tactical Communications Systems Framework: Specialised military grade tactical communication and information systems, including hardware, software and associated design and implementation and support services. To be deployed in active battlefield environments for critical real-time operational tactical communications. Potential cross government Defence and Security sectoral applications. CPV classifications

32000000 - Radio, television, communication, telecommunication and related equipment
72220000 - Systems and technical consultancy services
35712000 - Tactical command, control and communication systems
72000000 - IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support
48000000 - Software package and information systems"

Source

Our mission is to design the forces Defence needs to be prepared for the challenges and opportunities we face now, and to prepare for those we expect to face in future. It informs, guides and supports strategy and force development through the provision of strategic foresight, concepts, capability strategy and force design analysis. Strategic Foresight The Foresight Team provide the threat-informed, long-term global strategic context for policy, strategy, force design and capability development. In collaboration with their global network the team consider what the future might look like in the coming decades and publishes its thoughts and findings through its Global Strategic Trends Programme. Insights, Analysis, Research, Challenge (IARC) The team provides analysis and research to inform and support activities key to the continuous development of policy and strategy within Defence. To encourage critical thinking, academic discourse and insight, the team identifies, reviews and analyses publications from across the Defence sector and thought leaders, disseminating them directly to Senior personnel and periodically publishing content on an internal blog to stimulate debate. Strategic Concepts and Warfare Development The Strategic Concepts and Warfare Development Team sets Defence’s conceptual vision and drives short-term change to achieve it. The team consists of two branches: The Strategic Concepts Branch develop and assure concepts to inform and influence the evolution of policy, force design and capability development; The Strategic Warfare Development Branch assesses the current force, synthesises strategic lessons, codifies military strategic problems within a 0 to 5-year time horizon and offers evidence-based solutions to resolve them.

Source

"DASA has a team of Innovation Partners that can provide you with support in working with DASA. If you’re interested in working with DASA, wonder if your idea may be relevant, want to discuss a specific competition, or need some guidance on how to submit a proposal, we encourage you to speak to your local DASA Innovation Partner. DASA relies on diversity of thought in order to find and fund the very best innovations for Defence and Security. DASA is committed to working with all types of organisations and individuals, regardless of background. You are encouraged to get in touch even if you have never worked with Defence and Security before. DASA Innovation Partners can support you by:

helping you understand how your innovation may be relevant to Defence and Security
signposting to opportunities
providing assistance to link you to users across Government
guiding you through the submission process for DASA’s various opportunities
connecting you to members of DASA’s Access to Mentoring and Finance team (A2MF) for advice on helping you build the business behind your innovation.

DASA’s Innovation Partners are Civil Servants who work for the UK Government and they will protect your Intellectual Property."

Source

"In 2018, NATO leadership agreed a new Common Funded Capability Delivery model. The new model is intended to enhance the speed of capability delivery for NATO’s common funded capabilities. The model includes six stages focused on through lifecycle capability delivery and includes persistent collaboration between ACT and ACO, NATO’s two strategic commands. The model is focused on satisfying operational requirements with capability solutions across the spectrum of Doctrine, Organisation, Training, Materiel, Leadership, Personnel, Facilities, and Interoperability. OPEX contributes to the implementation of the new model in several ways. Discovery experimentation can support the identification and development of requirements as well as exploration into capability solutions. Hypothesis and validation experimentation can support solution development and selection. Lastly, OPEX is responsible for capability acceptance testing that takes place prior to capability delivery. Headquarters

NATO Allied Command Transformation
Joint Force Development Directorate
Operational Experimentation Branch

OPEX is the intersection between Operators and Innovation. OPEX plans, designs, conducts, and analyses experiments in support of new concepts and capabilities development."

Source

"Allied Command Operations (ACO) is responsible for the planning and execution of all Alliance operations. It consists of a small number of permanently established headquarters, each with a specific role. Supreme Allied Commander Europe – or SACEUR – assumes the overall command of operations at the strategic level and exercises his responsibilities from the headquarters in Mons, Belgium: Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, more commonly known as SHAPE."

Source

"The Royal Navy’s digital lab enabling domain experts to solve their most important digital challenges. Their teams work collaboratively with users to build products and services to support digital transformation: a data platform that will store, process and publish data from across the fleet, and a design system that will make applications look and feel consistent."

Source

"The main purpose of the British Army is to defend the nation, protect our people, project our influence and promote our prosperity. The Army delivers fighting power that can influence events on land in accordance with desired political outcomes. Versatile, adaptable and the ultimate guarantor of the nation, the Army deploys its soldiers overseas and at home across a wide range of military and non-military tasks. The Army Headquarters is in Andover. The Army is led by a 4-star General, the Chief of the General Staff (CGS). CGS is directly supported by the Deputy Chief of the General Staff (3- star) and the Assistant Chief of the General Staff (2-star). Subordinate to CGS are two 3-star commanders and one 2-star commander: Commander Field Army, who is responsible for generating and preparing forces for current and contingency operations; Commander Home Command, who sustains the foundations of the Army’s fighting power; and Commander Joint Helicopter Command, who is responsible for the tri-Service (‘joint’) organisation that brings together all UK battlefield aviation. Our vision for the Army is one which:

attracts, develops and nurtures a 21st Century workforce
engages persistently to provide understanding and global influence for Britain, while reducing external threats;
anticipates, adapts and acts at speed to resolve crises at home and abroad, across all domains
innovates and digitalises to transform the force and maximise its integration with partners and allies"

Source

Relevant locations: Army Headquarters (Andover) Commander Field Army (Trenchard Lines, Wiltshire) Standing Joint Command (Aldershot) Land Warfare Centre (Warminster)

In the MOD’s own words The principal role of the IDA will be to optimise UK Defence integration. It will do this by taking a Portfolio-level view of Defence and offer 'Integration as a Service' to Defence. The IDA will be at the heart of Strategic Command's [CSOC’s] new design, and will be a key part of the Defence operating model. The IDA will work to enable integration for Defence across government, with industry, and with international partners. It will lead Strategic Command's engagement with industry, helping develop the best-in-class integrated capability for Defence.

Source

From the 2025 Strategic Defence Review The Military Strategic Headquarters (MSHQ), led by the Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS), who is:

The professional head of the UK’s Armed Forces, accountable for their readiness to fight and win
xSenior Military Advisor to the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for Defence

Delian Alliance Elistair Alpine Eagle Arktis KrattWorks Unmanned Life Zepher Dronetag TEKEVER Shark Robotics STARK BayKar Novadem Unmanned Defense Threod Systems Angryeyes SKAITECH Aurea Avionics Greenjets RSI Europe WARGDrones Delair Robot Aviation Velos Rotors Origin Tidav DroneUA Avalor AI HIGHCAT

Point Zenith Orqa Skya Sky-Watch Nordic Unmanned Monopulse Broswarm Xplora Roboneers SkyCorp Airvolve UAVTECH StirlingX Flowcopter PLENO Vizgard Vasba / DELTA TANGO

"The Disruptive Capabilities and Technologies Office (DCTO) unites the knowledge and skills of innovation specialists from NavyX; the Office of the Chief Technology Officer; and the Navy AI Cell [and the Fleet Experimental Squadron]. Together, the unit will rapidly prototype, test and deploy advanced technologies to support operations at sea and will address the navy’s more pressing operational challenges. Different to how the teams worked in the past, the DCTO will have an entrepreneurial mindset to ensure they drive groundbreaking innovation forward and will support its people to be successful while building on previous work around autonomy, AI and other emerging technologies."

Source

"We are the catalyst that turns ground-breaking innovations into real-world impact.For over two decades, we have had exclusive rights to a unique portfolio of MOD-developed and crown-owned intellectual property (IP). In recent years, our portfolio has expanded with a growing number of new cutting-edge technologies from the broader public and private sector – turning untapped world-class ideas into commercial prosperity across a wide range of industries. We work across a full spectrum of innovators, investors, SMEs, corporations, research institutions, not for profits, and public sector organisations, identifying opportunities for new ground-breaking IP and working to deliver meaningful impact and commercial results through licensing deals and creating spin-out companies. The technologies in our portfolio have been developed to make a real difference in:

Enhancing and protecting our Front Line Commands and national security
Providing new innovative and life-saving solutions for our healthcare system
Combatting digital threats to protect cyber security
Making our planet more sustainable."

Source

See also

Ploughshare spin-out playbook

"Led by the UK National Armaments Director, Rupert Pearce,the NAD Group unites the MOD organisations responsible for developing, delivering, sustaining, housing and harbouring the UK’s national arsenal and defence estate. The NAD Group brings together expertise in science, technology, procurement, infrastructure and support, to provide integrated capabilities faster, more efficiently and effectively for our armed forces and allies. Together, we provide what our armed forces need, support national prosperity, and help ensure the UK remains safe at home and strong abroad. To achieve this, the NAD will:

build a competitive armaments ecosystem–creating the conditions for a productive, adaptable, and survivable military-industrial-tech enterprise with international allies
design and deliver the right capabilities–providing operational support, shared services, and equipment to create deterrence and give our armed forces the edge
drive economic growth–maximising defence spending to increase exports, employment, and economic security
increase productivity and efficiency–operating together in the most affordable, timely, and efficient way

The Group was established in March 2025 and is still being designed. It includes 5 enabling organisations and 4 newly established areas:

Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl)
Defence Support
Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S)
Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO)
Defence Digital (DD)
International Collaboration & Exports (ICE)
Commercial & Industry (C&I)
Options and Commissioning (O&C)
Corporate and Shared Services

Rupert Pearce is the National Armaments Director."

Source

"The Ideas Marketplace is an online networking Collaboration Platform where UK innovators can discuss, collaborate and share ideas with like-minded users to overcome defence and security challenges and help deliver the next generation of defence and security tools and services. The Ideas Marketplace connects industry to stakeholders. Once a user has signed up, they can:

seek out partnerships and collaborations with organisations that can help you develop their innovation
get updates on funding opportunities from across the defence and security community
learn about the latest defence and security industry news and see how they can get involved
gain access to networking and collaboration events
get help to understand the market for an idea and help to build the business behind it"

Source

See also

Ideas Marketplace Homepage

Video: Welcome to the Ideas Marketplace

ininkling: As we understand it (as of Nov 25), the Capability Chllenge Statements generated by Military Strategic Headquarters will be shared via Options & Commissioning and, for there, distributed to industry and academia via, for example, trade organisations such as ADS and techUK. If you have more info, please let us know!

"The Army are seeking to replace the Watchkeeper system with a new Uncrewed Air System (UAS) to deliver the Land Tactical Deep Find (LTDF) 24hr persistent surveillance requirement; under the title Project CORVUS.Project CORVUS is a CAT B procurement that has been launched in order to procure a new UAS to meet the Army's LTDF requirement, with the stretch target of a Minimum Deployable Capability in calendar year 2025. Defence Equipment and Support are the Contracting Authority, and the information contained within this notice is subject to contract and subject to change at the Authority's sole discretion."

Source

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The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Valley of Death

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Math Calculations

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Piñata Challenge

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Transcript

deftech_valley_of_death//2025.11//open_beta

deftech_valley_of_death//2025.11//open_beta

What is a framework – procurement essentials

In CSOC's own words

Point Zenith Orqa Skya Sky-Watch Nordic Unmanned Monopulse Broswarm Xplora Roboneers SkyCorp Airvolve UAVTECH StirlingX Flowcopter PLENO Vizgard Vasba / DELTA TANGO