Luca Leone

Rotron Aerospace’s new white paper, Strategic Defence Review 2025: Implications for the UK UAV Industry, explores how the UK’s SDR is redefining military capability development. With autonomy and sovereign innovation at its core, the SDR positions UAVs at the centre of future force design, supported by rapid procurement reforms and £400M in annual innovation funding. Rotron outlines how its modular propulsion and UAV technologies align with this digital-first, agile defence model. Read the full white paper from Rotron Aerospace Ltd. for detailed insights >> https://hubs.la/Q03ZsVNl0

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The UK Ministry of Defence has launched a new Defence Office for Small Business Growth, aiming to increase annual spending with defence SMEs by 50% to around £7.5bn by May 2028 and cut procurement timelines by more than half. Announced by Luke Pollard, Minister for Defence Readiness and Industry, the unit is designed to strip back procurement complexity that has historically favoured large primes. From February, SMEs will gain access to specialist commercial guidance and a confidential escalation channel to challenge unfair treatment by government buyers or tier-one contractors. The MoD currently spends around £5bn a year with 12,000 SMEs, but SME share of UK defence spend has fallen from 25% to 20% of £29bn in 2024, well below the Pentagon’s 40%+ SME participation. Operationally, the initiative sits alongside wider reforms to reduce single-source contracting, which reached 49% of new contract value in the year to April 2025, and to shorten contract award cycles from up to five years to as little as a few months. For the UK defence industrial base, this marks a structural attempt to rebalance resilience, innovation and domestic content as defence spending moves towards 2.6% of GDP by 2027. #defence #ukdefence #smes #procurement #defencetech

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The UK Ministry of Defence is implementing a 'Secure by Design' approach to ensure security is integrated into projects from inception through their entire lifecycle. This initiative faces unique defense-specific challenges including interoperability issues, legacy systems, and the difficulties of operating in contested environments worldwide. The article identifies four key problem areas requiring solutions: upskilling UK defense personnel, addressing unevenly distributed information and knowledge, incorporating security at the earliest acquisition stages, and supporting security through a capability's entire lifecycle. These challenges present opportunities for suppliers from industry and academia to develop solutions that address specialized needs. For each problem area, the article outlines specific challenges including knowledge mapping, delivering education mechanisms, managing information asymmetries between MOD and suppliers, integrating security with other engineering disciplines, and maintaining security through decades-long capability lifecycles involving coalition partners. #SecureByDesign #DefenseCybersecurity #MilitaryCapabilities #UKDefence

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🇬🇧 🛫 We’re excited to announce that #TEKEVER has acquired West Wales Airport to advance UK and NATO defence capabilities. This milestone strengthens our £400m #OVERMATCH programme, positioning West Wales Airport as a national hub for testing and evaluating unmanned systems. This investment will drive innovation, create skilled jobs, and support next-generation AI-driven autonomous systems for UK and allied forces. Learn more 👉 https://lnkd.in/ddRsWNF5 #AutonomousSystems #DefenceInnovation #UKDefence #Tekever

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The UK Space Agency will join the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology by April 2026 🚀🤝 The merger will streamline support for the UK’s growing space industry, making Whitehall more efficient and reducing red tape in line with our Plan for Change. Learn more: https://lnkd.in/eh3AsUTv

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In our latest Aerospace and defence insight, Paul Thorpe, Adrian Toutoungi and Harry Ruffell examine key operational and compliance aspects that defence companies encounter when bringing products to market and structuring their businesses for growth: https://bit.ly/406Sokf The defence industry operates within a complex regulatory and commercial landscape that requires careful navigation of multiple interconnected considerations; from establishing effective routes to market and managing stringent export control requirements, to addressing unique corporate governance challenges and banking complexities. #Defence #Aerospace

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UK Space Agency and Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S) are investing £65M in Borealis, a new command and control system for monitoring and protecting satellites. ✅ Supports 100 UK jobs ✅ Boosts space domain awareness ✅ Enhances national security More on this cutting-edge tech ⬇️ https://ow.ly/KT2I50Vcthw

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So DSEI has come to a close, marking another successful event filled with energy and a focus on the necessary changes for the UK's Defence Transformation Journey. The challenge ahead however now lies in transforming the Defence ecosystem to implement these vital changes. While there are many promising initiatives in progress, many of them require significant shifts in behaviours, cultures, and operational methods within a traditionally slow-to-adapt industry with entrenched ways of working and a historically low appetite for risk. An odd yet striking comparison for me was the evolution in approach at the Costa outlets during DSEI. Just two years ago, long queues and manual ordering processes were the norm, with excessive lead times that certainly did not meet user requirements. However, this year, we experienced the implementation of a digital front end, allowing resources to be redirected towards production and delivery, delivering required outputs at pace. This exemplifies the broader challenge faced by both public and private sectors in adapting to modernisation and the use of technology to free up valuable resources to focus on value added activity. So how can we drive the transformation in our ways of working to get the pace and outputs that we need ? We cannot simply come together every 2 years for an exercise in mutual back slapping and discussing the "what" and the "why" without considering the "how" - we must now collectively hold ourselves to account in order to foster innovation, streamline processes, and embrace technological advancements. Only by proactively identifying areas for improvement, fostering a culture of adaptability and investing in our people, can we can pave the way for a more agile and efficient Defence ecosystem. So let's seize the opportunity between now and the next DSEI to collaboratively drive these changes, ensuring a smoother transition towards a a UK Defence Sector that is adaptable, innovative and operates at real pace. What part will you play in empowering cultural change between now and then ? #Culture #Adaptability #Efficiency

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Gareth Evans and Justin Baxter from Poole-based SME Sentinel Unmanned discuss the Longreach70 UAS (Uncrewed Aircraft System) from vision to reality and working with BAE Systems in our industry perspective series: http://baes.co/bcvG50VjKa4 #PowerOfPerspective #SME #UAS #UAV

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We’re pleased to feature in the DSEI special edition of Military Systems & Technology. Our latest article explores how the Rust programming language is helping defence organisations address the growing demand for software that is both secure and reliable, without compromising on performance. Read the full piece in the September issue here (pp. 60–61):  👉 https://lnkd.in/dS83xAv

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