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INDUSTRY FOCUS MILITARY, AEROSPACE & DEFENCE


Britain is invEsting Billi o But whErE will thE Engi n


Expanding and upgrading thE talEnt pool Stronger sovereign defence capability requires a diverse and robust talent pool. For those entering the industry, apprenticeships remain essential to Britain’s long-term engineering capability, but they simply cannot meet demand for the experienced talent required to deliver the UK's defence ambitions over the next five years. With training pipelines lagging the pace


of technological change, the UK must focus on modernising technical education and strengthening employer partnerships if it is to build the workforce that future defence programmes demand. More immediate success lies within the


Kevin Hitchmough, business manager at


G&P Quality Management, considers whether Britain’s engineering capability can keep pace with the Government’s defence ambitions


B


ritain has entered a new era of defence manufacturing. The government’s commitment to increase defence spending


to 3.5% of GDP by 2035 will see annual defence spending rise to approximately £80 billion by the end of the decade. Alongside this sits the Defence Investment Plan, which earmarks more than £5 billion for drones and autonomous systems; a clear indication that the UK’s future military capability will increasingly depend on autonomous platforms, artificial intelligence and advanced digital technologies. For industry, this signals a clear shift away


from traditional ‘metal bashing’ to advanced manufacturing techniques. Granted, conventional engineering know-how such as steel production, forging, casting, milling and grinding will continue to play a vital role in the defence industry, but the game is changing. Tomorrow’s drones, eVTOLs, land-based vehicles and nuclear submarines all require a different set of manufacturing skills. The next generation of military kit is based


on far more than just mechanical engineering. A more sophisticated, multi-disciplinary approach is required that involves skills in additive manufacturing, lightweighting, electronic design, battery development, embedded software and artificial intelligence. This shift in manufacturing strategy places


additional strain on our existing industry, which is already struggling to cope with demand. In a nutshell, increased defence spending is a welcomed necessity, but it does highlight chronic challenges in our existing manufacturing capabilities.


thE winds of changE The engineering skills shortage did not begin


0


with recently increased defence spending. EngineeringUK estimates that Britain requires around 124,000 engineers and technicians every year simply to replace those leaving the workforce. Likewise, surveys from Make UK consistently identify skills shortages as one of manufacturers’ biggest constraints on growth and investment. Around 60% of manufacturers report persistent difficulties recruiting skilled engineering staff. These shortages are particularly acute in


systems engineering, embedded software, electronics design, digital manufacturing and machine learning – all disciplines on which modern defence programmes depend. Success depends upon teams capable of bringing together multiple facets of engineering into a single reliable platform. The encouraging news is that many of these skills already exist within Britain, but the difficulty is that they often sit outside the defence sector. Therefore, before launching further recruitment


initiatives, UK industry should undertake a rapid national defence engineering skills audit. Britain already possesses world-class engineering capability across many sectors, but there has never been a systematic assessment of how much of this expertise could be redeployed into defence programmes. Understanding where these capabilities


exist would allow the government to identify production bottlenecks before major contracts are awarded and target investment where it will have the greatest impact. Skills planning should become as integral to defence procurement as budgeting or supply-chain resilience. And this should involve a review of tomorrow’s talent pool.


2 DESIGN SOLUTIONS SEPTEMBER 2026


engineering workforce we already have. Experienced engineers from automotive, aerospace, energy and advanced manufacturing possess many of the core technical competencies defence programmes require. Rather than retraining back from square


one, engineers from these sectors can be trained in defence standards, systems assurance, security requirements and military programme delivery. Measured in months rather than years, structured upskilling programmes could rapidly increase Britain’s defence engineering capacity while preserving decades of valuable industrial experience. At G&P, many of the tier one and tier two


automotive component suppliers we work with have achieved AS9100, which has enabled them to pivot into aerospace. This link between automotive and aerospace holds significant potential for horizontal innovation and acts as a prime example of routes into alternate manufacturing disciplines like defence.


lEssons from thE automotivE industry The Strategic Defence Review continually stresses the need to rebuild a sovereign defence supply chain in the UK. In practice, this will not see the establishment of a standalone defence sector but one that pulls on the experience and skills of existing industries that have adopted advance manufacturing techniques. Britain’s car industry has long demonstrated


the value of flexible engineering resource models. G&P works with OEMs to routinely supplement permanent engineering teams with specialist project engineers, trained in sector-specific standards, who move between programmes as demand changes. This approach enables scarce expertise to be deployed where it delivers the greatest value, while reducing recruitment pressures during periods of rapid expansion and avoiding the need to downsize teams when peak production tails off. As defence programmes increasingly overlap,


this approach could help manufacturers access critical engineering capability more efficiently


www.designsolutionsmag.co.uk


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