PREMIUM VIDEO: UK adopts sequential approach to army digital transformation

In a webinar hosted by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) on 27 April, two British Army officers leading the service’s digital transformation programme outlined the building blocks of this endeavour.

Project THEIA is the programme at the heart of the transformation. It aims to exploit digitised information and cutting-edge technologies to improve the operational effectiveness of all army functions.

Brig Stefan Crossfield, the army’s Chief Data Officer and Programme Director of Army Digital Transformation said:

‘We have a mandate through the Integrated Review, that's given us the direction of travel. And THEIA is a big part of that transformation. It's a priority programme commissioned to transform the Army’s digital culture.’

‘The British Army [will spend]  something in the region of £500 million a year in 2021-2022 on digital and IT… So there's a significant amount of resource behind this,’ he added.

The Integrated Review aims to deliver sufficient funds for a more connected, interoperable and data-driven British Armed Forces   at both a strategic and tactical level.

However, industry experts warn that an increasingly networked force poses a real challenge when looking at the UK’s potential peer adversaries which have been operating in the cybersphere for years already.