Defence Online

Defence Innovation Initiative: Industry Reaction Part 2

October 18, 2016

This Autumn saw Defence Secretary Michael Fallon launch the Defence Innovation Initiative, a scheme to promote home-grown innovation in the defence sector.

The £800M fund is backed by IRIS (innovation and research insights unit) and the Defence and Security Accelerator, with the fund available to new technology innovation, intending to support emerging and disruptive technologies for which the private sector does not adequately support research.

The scheme encompasses many challenges set by the MOD, in both developing technology and bringing more SMEs into the defence supply chain.

This isn’t just about money, it’s about partnerships. Our Whole Force – military, civilians and business people – working as one.”

Following on from our first reaction piece to the Defence Innovation Initiative, here we explore SME reaction and look at company case studies of working with the MOD.

Muir Macdonald, Managing Director of Bath-based BMT Defence Services, was keen to highlight the strengths of the initiative in bringing more SMEs into the supply chain.

“Working with departments of defence is often a challenge as they have to balance getting new equipment into the field quickly, with spending taxpayers’ money wisely.” He said.

“I sense that the UK’s Defence Innovation Initiative is an exciting way of achieving that balance. The UK is a hive of small and medium companies with world-beating ideas that need recognition, investment and exploitation, but it’s not always easy, especially for smaller companies. I like Sir Michael Fallon’s promise to slash red tape, streamline processes and inject urgency – it’s how we like to work and if our customer does too, then we have like minds and the prospects really are very exciting.”

“The government realises that it can be very difficult for SMEs to bring their ideas, products and services to the MoD which is why the government has launched initiatives like this. The government wants to increase the proportion of the money it spends on SMEs as it wants to both capture the innovation that it might be missing as well as spreading prosperity wider across the country. I believe this will take time as primes and MoD officials have to turn words into actions. The Innovation Initiative will be an exciting test of that ambition – if the MoD ask the right questions, they’ll be impressed by what they get back – and the SMEs will be impressed if those ideas are rapidly exploited.”

“At BMT we have an extraordinarily creative environment. Our life blood is our expertise translated into new ideas, that turn into the solutions needed by armed forces around the globe. For example, we’ve enjoyed working with the Centre for Defence Enterprise, Oxford University and Rescue Global to exploit crowd-sourced data for rapid planning of disaster relief. Elsewhere, our unique fast landing craft is generating enormous interest overseas whether for humanitarian aid or military use. We’re bringing virtual reality gaming to military training in a new way to save time and money where it matters. And right now we’re taking our innovative general purpose light frigate design to several navies around the world.” 

The next article in the series focuses on technological innovations from Animal Dynamics and their relationship with the defence supply chain.

Read the first article, where we speak with Nick Hill, CEO of Plextek, here.

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BMT Defence Services Defence Innovation Initiative DII Michael Fallon MOD SME supply chain UK

Post written by: Vicky Maggiani

Vicky has worked in media for over 20 years and has a wealth of experience in editing and creating copy for a variety of sectors.