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techUK calls on MOD to address ‘core-enabler’ challenges in Defence Industrial Strategy.

On 2 December 2024 Defence Secretary John Healey announced the launch of the Defence Industrial Strategy review, ‘inviting investors, innovators, industry and trade unions to give their views on how to grow a better, more integrated, more innovative and more resilient defence sector’.

The Review identified six key themes: prioritising UK businesses; creating partnerships; providing certainty and stability; seizing the future; Spread prosperity; and enhancing the credibility of the UK’s deterrence.

Throughout January and February, techUK’s Defence Programme consulted with both Prime and SME members, from which emerged three key priorities that are fundamental if the UK is to cultivate a vibrant and diverse Defence technology sector in the UK.:

• The Ministry of Defence must act as both an intelligent and reliable customer and partner. This means understanding what it is buying and why, contracting promptly, paying on time, and accepting dependencies when necessary.
• The MOD must act in partnership with the rest of government in approaching technologies - setting standards and definitions - while tackling the ‘core-enabler’ challenges such as security vetting and clearances (a practical barrier to companies working across Defence and National Security).
• Finally, it must streamline and restructure the overly complex Defence innovation ecosystem, with clear delineations of responsibility across Head Office, Strategic Command, Front Line Commands, and delivery agencies.

The full submission can be read here:

techUK's Defence Industrial Strategy submission

For more on the work of techUK's Defence Programme, email Programme Manager Jeremy Wimble.