The word “innovation” appears 144 times in the Strategic Defence Review. We don’t think that’s coincidence. UK Defence is undergoing its most radical reset in a generation, and innovation is going to be at its core. This SDR isn’t just about kit or capabilities. It’s about embracing innovation and driving a wholesale transformation of how Defence thinks, buys, builds, and – critically – partners.
As we see it, there are three structural shifts that underpin the SDR’s innovation vision:
- Integrated by design across NATO and allied operations – more collaboration with allies, meaning more impact globally.
- Innovation-led capability, backed by £400m annually through new bodies like UK Defence Innovation and the Defence Research & Evaluation organisation – Ploughshare will be proud to help steer this and take ideas from our scientists to new heights.
- Industry-backed transformation, with a reformed procurement model and a new partnership with UK businesses – bringing in private collaboration is what we’ve been chiming for since our inception, and we have a huge opportunity to do that right now.
Ploughshare plays a critical role as the bridge between government, R&D, and industry as experts in discovering and unleashing the dual use capability of technologies, and delivering value creation in the form of spin-out companies and licensable products that drive economic growth.
This is a call to action, across AI, autonomy, space, quantum, and cyber, and we need to pull together across government and industry, academia, finance and regional clusters to embrace defence as the industrial growth machine that it is.
The message from Ploughshare is clear, and it’s one we believe everyday: innovation is no longer optional.
