By championing collaboration, advocating for innovation-friendly policies, and celebrating transformative achievements, we seek to propel the industry forward and maintain the UK’s position as a trailblazer in defence technology and strategic leadership.
Defence innovation is at the core of the United Kingdom’s strategic development efforts to build a more secure, stronger and prosperous country. At a time of shifting global superpower, and interstate competition, the provision of innovative tools, equipment and skills assessment, can further ensure the long-term stability of the UK’s defence mechanisms.
With the necessary support and investment by public and private entities, the defence sector can further equip itself, and its personnel with the necessary hard and soft power capabilities to build more advanced problem-solving abilities, and remain ahead of the curve as a nation from a global perspective.
Below we will explore the importance of innovation, and highlight how these efforts can help foster a culture of growth and help enhance the country’s competitiveness on a global scale.
The future of the defence sector
In the last several years, countries around the world have heavily invested in the development of advanced defence mechanisms for the improvement of threat assessment and national response strategies.
At the same time, the British government has committed itself to increasing not only budgetary spending for the defence sector but also relying on the cooperation of private and commercial institutions to aid in the progression of innovative tools.
A corporate report, published by the Ministry of Defence (MOD) in 2021, highlights the government’s efforts to commit nearly £188 billion to the defence force over the next four years. The increase in spending comes at a time of increased interstate threats, not only for in-person conflict but also cyber threats within the digital landscape.
These efforts are in line with the overarching plan for a Global Britain, by directly investing in the security of the nation, and its defence forces, and building a more competitive Britain.
The role of innovation
Determining future threats, and ensuring the country is equipped with the necessary counter-response mechanisms, not only requires the MOD to improve its understanding of these threats, but how their direct investment in innovation, technology, research and development can help keep it on track towards a Global Britain.
Understanding innovative solutions
As a key part of building towards a more secure and resilient defence industry, organisations need to be equipped with an understanding of innovative solutions.
These efforts require public and private entities to have a broader, and more informed systematic approach which will enable them to embed innovative practices throughout the defence industry.
The integration of advanced defence concepts, and emerging technologies, through research and development would help foster a culture of innovation not only for the defence industry but help to create a culture of innovation by instinct.
Establishing a culture of innovation means that both public and private entities can potentially capitalise on an open innovation ecosystem, which helps to build more efficient partnerships.
How innovation plays a role in the defence industry
Ultimately, the goal isn’t to innovate for the sake of innovation but rather to provide more partnership opportunities within the MOD.
Experimentation
Providing more insight into how modern technologies, including the advancements of Artificial Intelligence (AI), can help fulfil the duties of the MOD. New threats, such as cyberwarfare are only making it more difficult for the defence industry to fully ensure they can protect their digital infrastructure and digital mechanism. Efficient experimentation with modern tools could help establish new ways in which the defence industry can broaden their scope of cyber research and development.
Human capital
While advanced digital and technological systems are central to these defence mechanisms, having the right people onboard that aid in the development of these systems is crucial. Attracting the right talent, and acquiring the necessary human knowledge can help industry partners become more competitive in the near term. Additionally, the MOD would further increase their human capital, outside of the current landscape, which can bring into focus a culture of innovation within the defence industry.
Supportive policies
Another key driver of innovation is the need for supportive policies. The establishment of these policies helps to create more channels of development, not only for public entities, but can directly impact private companies as well. Advocating for supportive policies encourages the government and MOD to be more proactive in their efforts, which will help them adept at moving across several new defence domains more efficiently.
Fostering relationships
For quite some time there has been a divide between government and commercial enterprises. However, the greater need and improvement of security mechanisms, through innovative practices, would mean that the government can foster reliable industry partnerships. With public capital, government agencies can now further stretch their support towards the private market, allowing them to build a national network of researchers, innovators and developers.
Overcoming long-standing challenges
Investment in private stakeholders could help to bring more clarity to understand and resolve long-standing challenges that have existed within the defence industry. Effectively using private branches, including defence companies, research institutions and technology startups, the defence industry can become more efficient in resolving critical issues and relying on commercial ingenuity for their problem-solving.
Establishing a sustainable industry
There is currently a need to build and establish a more sustainable industry, which sees the defence industry addressing key challenges in terms of environmental, social and governance (ESG). Insufficient understanding of these obstacles, not only hinders the defence industry from achieving their intended goals but can derail their future efforts, which could potentially lead to long-term problems.
Resolving ethical challenges
The advancement of artificial technology has raised several ethical dilemmas, in terms of public security, protection of information and private data, and the reliability of advanced artificial systems. While there is a need for these systems on the back of growing defence threats, collaboration among several private institutions would ensure the defence industry addresses any potential ethical challenges, without compromising their strategic development.
Looking forward
Innovation remains a key component of the defence industry’s forward-looking strategy, to build a more secure and reliable defence mechanism for the British people. However, this would not be possible without the sufficient acquisition of private ingenuity and problem-solving.
At the base, it requires the defence industry to advocate for more supportive policies that could potentially help initiate more private partnerships. This would not only bring in more valuable human and digital capital for the industry, but it would help the ministry to fast-track its strategic plans, and create a more sustainable industry which sees the effective collaboration between public and private enterprise.
