Serco’s Post

The five-year contract has been awarded to BAE Systems to design and manufacture a deployable #tactical Wide Area Network (#WAN) known as ‘#TRINITY’ – delivering a highly #secure and state-of-the-art #battlefield #internet capability to #UKforces. This contract named Design and Systems Integration Delivery (#DSID) will directly support the Prime Minister’s priority to grow the economy by backing 60 UK jobs based in Dorset. It will also see further investment into UK skills from BAE Systems, their #partners and across the supporting supply chain. Working together with #trustedpartners, including L3Harris Technologies , KBR, Inc. and PA Consulting , BAE Systems will combine its defence communications systems #expertise and experience to develop, deliver and deploy world-leading network capability to the #UKArmedForces. #Trinity’s resilience is based on its composition. It is made up of a series of nodes, each able to add, #access and move #data in a #securenetwork. If a number of nodes are damaged in #warfare, the rest automatically re-route to #maintain optimum network #speed and flow of #information, making it highly effective.

It would be interesting to understand the defence spend in more detail. Our business does not qualify as an SME according to MOD as we are slightly bigger than the 250 employee / £50m definition but we are far from being a “large prime” We therefore fall into the forgotten middle as do many uk businesses that add value to defence. We can’t apply for DASA funding etc as we are not an SME , but are not included in the list of “large primes” that the government engages with directly. I submit that the definition of SME be broadened to 500 employees and £100m

Of £22 billion transacted through Defence Equipment and Support, 6.8% of that spend goes to SMEs (which means over 90% goes to the large Primes). Put another way, just under 30 large Primes receive over 90% of the Defence spending with the top 10 in receipt of just over 40% of the total spend. The 6.8% figure came from DE&S yesterday at their SME Defence Open Day event held at Abbey Wood (the other numbers are courtesy of Perplexity). What is not known is how much of the spend with the large Primes then gets cascaded into the UK SME supply chains so the 6.8% only relates to direct spend. What a stark background to the theme of the half-day event of how SMEs can more effectively engage with the MoD and deploy capabilities that can be fully exploited and utilised across the Services. The event was actively supported by Make UK Defence ADS Group Ltd and Team Defence Information as well as Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S) Defence and Security Accelerator and Defence Procurement. My takeaway, working for an SME that is working with the MoD on AI and Quantum deployments, is that there is an awful lot of goodwill, initiatives, programmes, teams, funding and events looking to all solve the same set of problems - how to enable SMEs to understand the requirements in good time, engage easily with the requirements, access funding for all stages of deployments (from R&D to TRL9) and provide an exploitation path from one internal MoD customer to other potential customers in the MoD (and NATO?). Unfortunately, all of this good work is being built on top of a legacy process, people and policy that was not developed for this type of rapid (spiral) development and quick capability delivery from smaller companies. As such the poor old SME has to be on countless frameworks, kiss a lot of frogs and accept that contracting is challenging and exploitation is, largely, down to them at the moment. The ideal solution is not achievable (start with a clean piece of paper) but what can be done is create some single front doors for SMEs with concierges at the doors to help direct them, counsel them, and be a critical friend. Encouragingly Alex Barnett from DE&S presented on a new strategic approach and the concept of a "Gateway" for SMEs to help provide some measure of a single destination with a 3-stage process from "Incubate" (TRL 1-5) to "Iterate" (TRL 6-7) to "Scale" (TRL 8-9). I'm cautiously optimistic and wait, as do the other SMEs in the room I am sure, for more details on the "how". Alexander Giles Hugh W. Neil Rawsthorne Paul Jenkinson Dina Kakaras Victoria Cope MBA FRAeS FCIPS Adrian Baguley Andy Start Stuart Laws Daniel Sawyers Deeph Chana Pam Badhan

Great piece from a favourite colleague and mentor of mine, Dr John Coyne, talking about the need for Defence to prioritise digital infrastructure in the North of Australia to create whole-of-society resilience and preparedness . Not an easy task given the remoteness and skills divide but one absolutely worth pursuing. Secure cloud capabilities at the edge and in disconnected locations will be required to meet the demands of performance, reliability and security. #hypercloud

A GREAT READ ON THE POOR PLANNING OF AUSTRALIA'S DEFENCE IN 2024. WORTH THE READ. As one observer of US policy recently commented: ‘You go to war with the industry base you have, not the industry base you want.’ This is simply not good enough for the situation in which Australia finds itself. Instead, Australia must consider industry as a capability. Drawing on the approach to defence industry in France, Sweden, Israel and Canada, the report argues that this will require substantial changes in both defence industry and the broader national industry policies. It will require the government to define clear industry requirements as part of its overall defence planning and force design process. WHAT ARE YOU SEEING WITH OUR DEFENCE FORCE? Do you see strength or weakness? Do you see leadership or not? Do you hear we have enough joining the ADF? Do you think we are well equipped? #adf #australia #defence #defenceindustry #noplanning #poorleadership

A lot happening in Defence with a major announcement yesterday by the Minister for Defence Australia. Yes Defence priorities have been streamlined and a more nuanced stragey has been unvalied, but how does that really affect the Defence Industry? What it seems to focus on, is acknowledging the confusing nature of working with Defence and goes about outlining what is of vital importance and the Governments commitment to collaboration. "the Strategy will drive Defence to engage directly with industry right from the beginning, including at the classified level, to facilitate faster and better-informed decisions by industry and Defence." What is really interesting is that the Strategy also includes plans to work with industry to build the workforce that will deliver on these Priorities. Exciting times ahead & hopefully a more mature pathway to working with Defence Australia and lifting their workforce capabilities. #defenceindustry #priorities

Understanding Australia's National Defence Strategy It was a recurring message at last week’s Defence + Industry Conference in Canberra: If you haven’t got your head around the National Defence Strategy, you need to. Fortunately, Mr. Greg Moriarty (Secretary of Defence) and Admiral David Johnston, AC, RAN (Chief of the Defence Force) were on hand to give industry the headlines. I've summarised the key points in my latest blog post on DECnet, providing essential insights for industry professionals. Key Highlights: - Shift towards a strategy of denial in response to global changes. - Integration of broader national resources in defence efforts. - Urgent reforms needed in capability acquisition for faster deployment. Read the full article here: https://lnkd.in/g7CVhc5m #DefenceIndustry #NationalDefenceStrategy #StrategicPlanning #AustralianDefence

📢 I’m excited to share the news that the Defence Suppliers Forum (DSF) has signed a new agreement with the Government to improve the defence enterprise and deliver world-class capability and support to the UK Armed Forces   The agreement, sets out ambitious targets such as halving the time it takes to contract for new defence equipment and improving the availability of defence equipment by 50% 💯  This is a great example of how Government and Industry can work together to meet today’s threats and protect the nation and its prosperity 🙌  You can read more about the agreement and its objectives here: https://lnkd.in/dWJph_ET  #Defence #DefenceEquipment #Government #Industry