Andy Bell
Dstl Chief Science and Technology Officer
The decisive factor in defence innovation is no longer just access to advanced technology, but the pace at which it can be developed, integrated and fielded.
Delivery of capability at the pace of relevance has always underpinned military advantage, but rapid technological change has heightened this challenge, placing a premium on swiftly translating concepts into operational use and maintaining learning cycles that keep pace with evolving threats.
Why rapid capability delivery is essential
Allies and adversaries are already fusing military and commercially available technologies and adapting them in months rather than years. Maintaining operational advantage will require a change in how we develop and adopt capability – moving beyond linear processes towards faster experimentation, iterative delivery and rapid scaling of what works.
This shift isn’t solely about speed in isolation. It also requires a more sophisticated understanding of how technologies interact. Understanding transdisciplinary integration of science and technology – AI and advanced computing to robotics, sensing, energy and human systems – is essential to realising their full operational value.
Central to achieving pace and integration is the relationship between MOD and its industry and academia partners. As mentioned in the 2025 UK Defence Industrial Strategy, maintaining a technological edge depends on a resilient, innovative and closely aligned industrial base.
This means evolving from transactional procurement towards more collaborative models that enable earlier engagement, risk sharing and creating clearer pathways from innovation to adoption
Collaboration with other sectors
Innovation today sits across a broad ecosystem, drawing on frontier research, commercial investment, entrepreneurial agility and critical R&D retained within government. Defence must work as an active partner within that system.
This means evolving from transactional procurement towards more collaborative models that enable earlier engagement, risk sharing and creating clearer pathways from innovation to adoption. It also requires deeper links with academia, ensuring research is translated more effectively into deployable capability.
Defence’s role is to define clear problems, enable rapid testing and remove barriers to adoption. But success won’t come from defence alone. It requires a whole-of-society effort – harnessing the ingenuity, skills and investment of partners across the UK.
In an era of constant change, our advantage will come from how quickly and effectively we can align investment, people and technology to deliver capability at the pace of relevance.
