“Capital follows confidence” as defence courts private money
Outside investment and the direction in which venture money flows may reveal what defence will buy years before formal programmes begin.
QinetiQ used the I/ITSEC conference in Orlando, Florida, to announce that it has been awarded an 18-month extension to its Distributed Synthetic Air Land Training (DSALT) contract by the UK MoD.
The initial four year contract was awarded in May 2009 and allows RAF pilots to train alongside British Army forward air controllers and artillery personnel prior to deployment to the front line.
The contract covers the provision and running of a training facility at RAF Waddington.
‘We’re really showing the breadth of our capability,’ Nigel Best, director of global business development at QinetiQ UK, told Shephard of the company’s
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Outside investment and the direction in which venture money flows may reveal what defence will buy years before formal programmes begin.
The Department of National Defence expects initial contracts to deliver thousands of uncrewed systems, but has yet to establish the quantities, capability mix or deadline behind Ottawa’s promised tenfold expansion.
The company told Shephard that Ukraine is operating modified Protector weapon stations originally supplied for armoured vehicles, with human operators authorising engagements from hundreds of kilometres away.
A report from the Council on Geostrategy argues the UK should move away from a traditional balanced force and shift investment to naval, air and space capabilities, backed by a larger fleet of attack submarines and deeper AUKUS integration.
At its technology summit in London, attended by Shephard, Thales UK examined the importance of speed to delivery, the growing focus on cross-domain capabilities and how procurement reform could be crucial for future battlefield advantage.
Are all systems ready for the next mission? Have upgrades been applied? Are all assets aligned to deploy together, on time and fully prepared? In modern defence operations, readiness is no longer measured platform by platform. It is measured by how well people, assets, data and decisions move together — across land, sea and air.