FEATURES
Launch of the DEFENCE
INNOVATION INITIATIVE
The UK has a reputation as one of the world’s most innovative nations. British innovation developed the tank, the fi ghter aircraft and radar. More recently, the UK’s Armed Forces have innovated continuously to meet the challenges faced on operations around the world, responding to evolving threats on the battlefi eld and using innovative solutions to respond rapidly to sudden crises like the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Today, many Armed Forces personnel are at the forefront of developing new capabilities which will push technology to its limits, including missile systems like Brimstone, as well as 6th generation aircraft and synthetic simulation using the latest games technology.
Within the military, our readiness to adapt and innovate in response to threats to the UK is a key part of what makes us successful. And we need this mindset now just as much as ever. The world is undergoing rapid technological change – just think about how our lives now revolve around cyberspace and the instant connectivity to huge amounts of information this brings. But this technology is just as readily available to our adversaries as it is to us and they may seek to use it against us in novel ways that outmanoeuvre our traditional advantages. So we need to continue to innovate to stay ahead, to maintain military advantage and protect the UK and our people.
The Defence Innovation Initiative was launched in September to fundamentally change the way in which Defence goes about its business. The initiative’s aim is a simple but challenging one – to empower the Armed Forces to become innovative
www.raf-ff.org.uk
The MOD will seek out new ways of training through increased exploitation of virtual reality simulation.
By Wg Cdr David Wilkinson, Defence Strategy and Priorities
by instinct. So what does this mean? Over the next few years, the MOD aims to encourage more innovative behaviour at all levels, from its senior leadership to its new civilian and military recruits. This means altering attitudes to encourage people to innovate and develop new ways to work, whether that’s through organisational change or through adapting the environment in which we work so that we communicate and share ideas more readily. We will also look to take better advantage of innovation occurring outside government, setting up the new Innovation and Research InSights Unit to capture and understand the latest global innovation opportunities as well as establishing a Defence and Security Accelerator which will provide an environment to bring together innovators from the private sector to work on the Armed Forces’ most signifi cant challenges. The MOD is backing this up
with a fund of around £800 million over the next 10 years.
So what does this mean for you? Defence is looking to harness ideas from across the Armed Forces, whether that’s through novel use of an existing technology, perhaps through the way in which we work together online or through our use of emerging capabilities like increasingly agile and miniature drone technology such as SKEETER (see image below). The MOD will issue an innovation challenge call in the next couple of months, so keep a look out for it. Alternatively, if you have an idea that you think could improve how Defence does its business, consider making a suggestion under the GEMS scheme. If you would like to read more about the Defence Innovation Initiative, take a look at the prospectus – Advantage through Innovation.
The SKEETER micro-UAV is being developed by a UK company, Animal Dynamics and aims to replicate the f ight of a dragonf y to gather intelligence in both day and night. Innovation prospectus webpage:
gov.uk/government/publications/advantage-through-innova- tion-the-defence-innovation-initiative-prospectus
Winter 2016 11
© MOD Crown Copyright
© MOD Crown Copyright
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