“Capital follows confidence” as defence courts private money
Saronic’s 55m Marauder autonomous vessel, developed through private investment and selected for the US Navy’s Medium Uncrewed Surface Vessel Marketplace on-water demonstrations. (Photo: Saronic)
Outside investment and the direction in which venture money flows may reveal what defence will buy years before formal programmes begin.
Governments cannot expect to develop, finance and scale every good defence idea through traditional procurement alone, according to Phil Siveter, chief executive of Thales UK, who used the company’s technology summit on 14 September to argue that defence must get better at attracting private capital.
Pension funds, infrastructure investors, private equity and venture capital were all prepared to back technology, manufacturing capacity and infrastructure “where there is a credible demand signal and an investable proposition”, Siveter said. Despite the recent flurry of investment in startups and scale-ups, he added, “honestly, this is not enough”.
In his view, the missing ingredient was
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