Defence Innovation: New Models and Procurement Implications. The British Case

The UK has emphasised the importance of innovation in defence for over five years in light of both the deteriorating political environment and increasing technological opportunities. In its hopes for such technology-based initiatives, the British Government looks particularly to Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises. The paper addresses the evolution of policy stances on innovation, including in the 2021 Defence & Security Industrial Strategy, itemises the organisational arrangements that have been developed, and analyses the areas of technology seen as most significant. Funding issues are discussed and five approaches to stimulating innovation are identified.

These are:

• the government’s readiness to work in cooperative, partnered relations with the private sector, including private sector businesses operating in the UK that are foreign-owned;
• recognition that innovation will need a readiness to collaborate with foreign partners, including continental Europeans. There is awareness of the challenges of collaboration with the US and also a readiness for patience in development ties with countries including Japan and Australia;
• the UK recognises that, given the level of R&D spending and the types of advancing technology, defence needs intelligent access to gains that are being made in the civil and commercial world and in the university sector. Like the defence sectors of other states, the UK faces the challenges of understanding what is moving in the civil world, how it might be used in the military, and how to secure access. There is no evidence of any significant reluctance on the part of UK businesses to get involved with defence, but government contracting practices need some attention;
• there is an emphasis on modularity and the use of an open systems approach in the design of major systems to facilitate the easy integration of novel elements. The Type 26 frigate, with Australia and Canada having ordered their own versions, is significant in this regard.
• Financially, the government has looked to secure significant changes with modest sums of money, although the defence settlement of November 2020 reversed the trend towards lower R&D spending by the MoD.

The paper concludes with a short discussion of the commercial developments needed to promote innovation and with an exploration of the idea that information-focused innovation in defence has implications for organisational and cultural change in the military, transforming whose expertise and experience is of central value…