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Jon Excell
Innovation is critical to the future of the UK defence sector
The latest round of armed forces redundancies announced last week by defence secretary Liam Fox poured fresh fuel on the smouldering debate over cuts to the UK’s defence budget.
From swingeing personnel reductions to the axing of the Harrier, and continuing controversy over the initial lack of aircraft for the UK’s new aircraft carriers, concerns persist over the impact of last October’s defence review on one of the UK’s most critical industrial sectors.
One might expect gloomy pessimism to be the dominant emotion of a sector set against such a backdrop. But if The Engineer’s experience over the past six months is anything to go by, the UK’s defence sector is in a bullish mood. Indeed, not only are its key companies determined to innovate in the face of adversity, but many industry insiders have suggested that austerity should be turned into a positive that the need to do more with less could act as a spur for innovation.
There’s no doubt that government would certainly like people to think that’s the case. In response to the cries of protest over the UK’s shrinking armed forces, Liam Fox last week insisted that extra money allocated to the equipment budget from 2014 will actually enhance the UK’s defence capability. While in our interview, Fox’s colleague, defence procurement minister Peter Luff, professes a deep admiration for the SMEs driving innovation in the defence industry. One wouldn’t really expect a politician to say anything else, but from our feature on the UK Royal Navy’s next generation of frigates, to our in-depth look at a cunning new approach to submarine countermeasures, the stories in this defence-themed issue do tell a positive story.
One particularly evident trend is the growing importance of tapping into expertise from other sectors an approach to innovation that’s brought to life in our feature on the Wildcat, an adapted off-road rally car, whose speed and agility could potentially provide better protection than any amount of armour.
“If The Engineer’s experience over the past six months is anything to go by, the UK’s defence sector is in a bullish mood”
The defence sector is becoming increasingly skilled at exploiting expertise from elsewhere but there’s still a long way to go. Few areas of industry are so bound up with notions of sovereignty, secrecy and security, and ensuring that the defence industry has the right mechanisms in place to harvest the best ideas from the UK’s diverse technology base will become ever more important.
Next week, The Engineer will be hosting a roundtable debate on this very issue at the DSEI show in London. To have your say, or put a question to our panel, leave your comments below
Readers' comments (5)
S. Martin | 7 Sep 2011 2:57 pm
It would appear that many companies operate solely for the UK defence markets and nothing else. This needs to change and innovation is vital to any success, particularly the opening up of new markets. Many new export markets exist for any market sector, not just defence.
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Anonymous | 7 Sep 2011 2:59 pm
Its hardly surprising that SME's are more innovative.
Think this fits for most large companies. A good simple idea comes along that an SME would persue, whereas a large company would put it to senior engineers who would over-think the proposal and dismiss it
Innovation is an idea from any source, not just from an engineer and this is usually done by someone who has had experience from a variety of industrial sectors, and not the myopic approach of large companies that focus on engineers with disciplines only in their own sector of industry.
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Berenice Baker | 7 Sep 2011 3:21 pm
In these straitened times, defence innovations should concentrate less on putting innovative hardware on the battlefield and more on reusing existing assets through maintenance and upgrades.
Reducing fuel consumption and moving to renewable energy will become increasingly important, as reflected by the targets set by many defence ministries.
As far as the UK defence industry goes, the MOD cuts have encouraged companies to seek export contracts to emerging powers rather than sell domestically or to immediate allies. This will not just keep them ticking over until the crisis is over but will be a valuable contribution towards future recovery.
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Geoff Revill | 7 Sep 2011 4:54 pm
Indeed MOD saw this coming - the existing procurement systems have been shown to be inadequate. The plan, as evidenced by def Stan 23-09 as one example, is to change procurement strategy and open up the sector to real competition. if you want to know how visit the upcoming Interoperable eArchitecture confernce and workshop http://bit.ly/ooHkRA
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Anonymous | 13 Sep 2011 5:17 pm
As I am currently working within the UK defence industry in an export capacity, I can whole heartedly say the guy that wrote this articel is dreaming. Thhe industry is on its "arse" so to speak, and at the forefront of this is a governments lack of ambition to exploit the export market. Other countries have their delegates in there competing and standing side by side with their top defence companies, where the UK would ponder 4 months over the granting of an export license! Expect big job cuts annonced this month!!
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