Larkspur International’s Post

Transcript

Hi, it's nice to see you. Thank you very much for agreeing to do this interview. A Really nice to see you too. Glad to be here. It would be really useful if you say a couple of words about yourself and the industry that you represent. My name's Lee Hannaford. I am the Director of creative technology for a company called Red Wing and we are an SME that works mostly within the defense and national security and intelligence space in the UK and overseas. And is that technology predominantly or is it brick and mortar? Technology. So we provide, we provide two things. We provide bonded applicated telecom solutions to allow users to operate around the world, freedom of action, freedom of movement. And we sit with users to understand their use of problems and then try and find technologies that help them deliver their outcomes. Thank you. This interview is motivated by a change of government and shall I say change of governments around the world and the current situation that we find ourselves in, from economic to security to what not lots of issues to grapple with. What I'm wondering is, specifically in the UK, what are the opportunities that you see for your industry, specifically with the new government coming into power? The biggest thing that we see is a clean slate after 14 years of a single administration, regardless of their political persuasion. It's given the opportunity for industry to revisit. Some of the opportunities are already in flow and and look at what the the the current new government want to do with their direction going forward, especially within the foreign policy area, their relationships with the European Union and their relationships with the Commonwealth and the wider world. Can you give us an example of that? You can pick any? Yep. So the we perceive that the relationship with Europe will change over the next 12 to 18 months. It's well known that the previous administration. Was torn somewhat between having a closer relationship or a more distance relationship. This new administration is definitely looking to have closer ties. Which allows us to look at different areas of opportunity, especially within the the Jeff nations of Europe, that's the Joint Expeditionary Force, which is the 10 nations that surround the North Sea. Thank you. Fantastic. And then if you can think of, I understand that the national security technology defense space, it's pretty difficult to explain to us the listeners that are not part of the community as you call it, but if you can think of a practical step so. Mentioned closer ties with the European Union, but something easy and practical that the new government can do to move some of these opportunities. You see, you know, you talked about clean slate, communicating better and having Better Business relations and political relations with the European Union. A practical step and solution that they can implement to support your industry, specifically in the technological space, whether it's regulation, whether it's an indication, what is it that you can support? If as an industry, yeah. So the one of the big challenges that the UK has always had is the exquisiteness. We've always tried to do things independently and we've always tried to do things. That that's pretty exquisite. Whereas sometimes it's called the 80 percent, 80% is sometimes good enough. We can jointly work on the 20% together, but to get to that 80% point to actually put something on the ground that people can actually use. Follow industry models for example would be a great help. So if I, if I simplify this of ourselves, we're looking, we're looking towards the European Union as another market that is very close physically to us, but not just to market. It's about increasing efficiency between the countries and protecting us most importantly with what exists already and not having such delays by trying to do things by ourselves where collaboration is possible. So there's two things there. One, in the past, this is historical all the way back to the 1970s. Most of our technology exchange has been done with the United States and that's a historical thing, this special relationship, call it what you will, and the UK spent a lot of time buying technology in short order from the United States with our. With the opening up of barriers within Europe, it allows us to look at different technologies. More importantly, it allows us to adhere to different standards. It allows us to understand what our European friends are doing and and see where we can collaborate together. Collaboration is. A big thing that the the UK is looking to do now over the next 12 to 18 months. We recognize that we can't do a lot of things by ourselves. Ukraine has highlighted that, but working together with our physically closer allies would be a definite big game changer. We only have to look at what's going on at the moment with some of the larger programs, be it Gcap, which is the global, global combat air platform, or with the bilateral agreement that's been signed with Germany. It looks as though the government are now looking at different ways. To solve some of the the issues that we've been having over the last five to eight years where we've tried to do things by ourselves. Ajax, which is an armored vehicle, being a prime example of where we tried to do something independently. And the platform is now running about 7 to 8 years late, whereas if you look at our European partners and they, they work together and they've delivered solutions in. To meet the need. Very interesting, Lee. Thank you very much. A lot of food for thought. I assume that either anyone wants to find out more about this specific industry, they can get in touch with you. Thank you very much. Thank you.