UK seals £350m India defence deal protects 700 Belfast jobs
Britain will supply lightweight multirole missiles to the Indian Army under a £350m contract, safeguarding 700 Belfast roles, a separate accord launches UK-India collaboration on electric naval propulsion (£250m) as wider complex-weapons ties deepen.
UK defence spend — ultra-brief
£60.2bn (2024/25) £73.5bn (2028/29), 3.8% avg real-terms annual growth.
Capital drives rise, 38% of MOD spend in 2024/25, real terms doubled since 2014/15.
NATO measure: 2.4% of GDP (2025) 2.5% by 2027 (2.6% incl. intelligence), target 3.5% by 2035 (within NATO’s broader 5% defence & security ambition).
Regional industry spends £31.7bn (2024/25), Southeast highest total, Southwest highest per capita.
Ukraine support: £10.8bn (to Mar 2026) + £2.26bn G7 loan, £3bn/yr pledged to 2030/31.
Near-term priorities, £15bn warhead, £7bn+ accommodation, £6bn munitions, £4bn+ autonomous systems, £1bn laser weapon.
IBM wins £320m MoD deal for DEEAMS
IBM UK will build DEEAMS, an AI-enabled platform replacing 17 legacy systems to manage defence equipment.
Serving 65,000 users across 130+ platforms, it targets real-time maintenance/spares planning, £1bn in efficiencies, and 100 new UK jobs.
Army awards £4.16m FPV training deal
MoD has hired Exeter-based Anartes to deliver RAPSTONE FPV Strike Tranche 2 kits, 3,000 quadcopters (5/8/10-inch), FPV goggles/controllers, 50 ground control stations and 500 screens.
Soldiers will complete 15+ hrs simulator time before flying, using COTS hardware and open-source firmware building a low-cost path to future weaponised FPV and attritable UAS.
Rolls-Royce Submarines Siemens sign digital MoU
Rolls-Royce Submarines and Siemens will build a “digital backbone” to speed reactor design, production and support for Royal Navy submarines, cutting cost and risk.
Signed at DSEI, the deal leverages Siemens’ Accelerator tools and best practice sharing to boost productivity across UK programs including Astute and Dreadnought.
SecureCloud+ raises £5m to scale defence collaboration platform
Gresham House Ventures has invested £5m to accelerate automation-led upgrades to SecureCloud+’s CWE platform, CEO Greg Clarke becomes Executive Chair, founder Peter Williamson moves to NED, and Field Marshal Nick Houghton stays on as Senior Military Advisor.
UK awards £4.4m to 14 future-flight trials
Innovate UK and DfT are funding 14 drone/eVTOL projects to speed real-world use-medical deliveries, emergency response, infrastructure inspection, habitat restoration, and regional AAM corridors (e.g., Oxford–Cambridge).
The package aims to cut emissions, lower costs, and accelerate commercialization and high-skill jobs nationwide.
MASS wins £15.7m countermeasures contract
Cohort plc said its subsidiary MASS Consultants has secured a four-year, £15.7 million deal to provide airborne countermeasures and services to a UK defence prime for an overseas customer.
CEO Andy Thomis said the award reinforces MASS’s spectrum-warfare credentials and, alongside £60 million of recent group orders, boosts revenue visibility. Cohort’s seven-company group employs 1,000 staff across the UK, Germany and Portugal.
Home Office inks £53.55m Oracle cloud deal
The Home Office has signed a five-year, £53.55m Oracle IaaS/PaaS contract-under a £5bn framework-to support its Oracle Fusion rollout and anchor Whitehall’s Shared Services Strategy.
It aligns with the £711m DWP-led Synergy programme to move MoJ, Defra and the Home Office onto a common Oracle ERP/HR model, as wider government ERP consolidation (£2.5bn) continues.
BAE Systems, Forterra to demo autonomous AMPV in 2026
BAE Systems and Forterra will fast-track an autonomous Armoured Multi-Purpose Vehicle integrating Forterra’s Auto Drive system, with a demo slated for 2026.
The modular autonomy kit is designed to port across other Army platforms, including Bradley A4 and M109A7 Paladin.
Sitehop raises £7.5m for quantum-secure encryption
Sheffield startup Sitehop secured £7.5m led by Northern Gritstone (total funding £13.5m) to scale its hardware-based, quantum-resilient SAFE series encryption.
The BT-trialled tech cuts latency and energy use (10% of conventional), with deployments already live at a tier-one carrier in five countries.
Existing investors Amadeus, Manta Ray, Mercia and NPIF joined the round.
Dragonfly raises €3m to speed software choices with AI
London startup Dragonfly closed a €3m pre-seed led by Episode 1 to launch a conversational AI that recommends tools from a 250k+-product database. Founded in 2024, it plans an enterprise platform later this year to map tech stacks and deliver compliance-aware, tailored picks.
UKHO x Marine AI making nav data usable for autonomous ships
UKHO and Marine AI will convert ADMIRALTY Sailing Directions and Radio Navigation Warnings into machine-readable inputs for Marine AI’s Guardian AI, enabling MASS to act on official guidance autonomously.
An on-water demo in Plymouth is due spring 2026, with outputs feeding the IHO S-100 standard.
Jam-Resistant Infinity Tether Debuts
UK firm Evolve Dynamics has debuted the Infinity Tether, a wired short-range drone system designed to resist GPS and RF jamming.
The tethered setup supports 48+ hours of continuous flight at up to 100 m altitude while streaming data over a stable 100 Mbps link, offering a rugged, lightweight option for persistent surveillance in contested EM environments.
ADS urges Holyrood to back aerospace defence security & space
ADS’s Scottish election manifesto calls for five actions: fix skills gaps (apprenticeships, curriculum reform), demo hydrogen/battery-electric flight, invest in defence (incl.
munitions), speed tech adoption to lift productivity, and partner on exports. The sectors already add £3.7bn and 36,900 jobs, ADS says stronger backing could unlock much more.
Scotland to host biggest space expo 3–4 Dec
Glasgow’s SEC will welcome 2,300+ delegates, 100 speakers and 80 exhibitors for Space-Comm Expo Scotland.
Backed by the UK Space Agency and Space Scotland, the event features NASA/ESA/NATO guests and focuses on UK launch, in-orbit services, sustainability, defence/cyber and skills-aiming to drive investment in Scotland’s fast-growing £18.6bn UK space sector.
UK fast-tracks space laser-warning and carrier drone projects
The UK is developing £500k satellite sensors to detect and characterise hostile laser activity, protecting space assets that underpin nearly 20% of GDP.
In parallel, the MoD’s Project VANQUISH seeks a jet-powered, STOL autonomous drone to operate from Queen Elizabeth-class carriers without catapults or arrestor gear, with a sea demo targeted by end-2026 and potential production in the 2030s.
Cranfield completes Power & Propulsion Labs to drive net-zero flight
Cranfield University has finished its Power & Propulsion Laboratories, a CH2i flagship beside the campus airport, to research hydrogen, SAFs, electrification/hybrid systems and train advanced talent.
A Hydrogen Integration Research Centre is also underway, creating the UK’s first large-scale hydrogen research hub at an airport.
Farnborough 2026 expands after early sell-out
FIA 2026 (20–24 July) adds a sixth hall and extra chalets, making it the largest show yet. Exhibitors are 63% international (22% first-time), with the biggest-ever U.S. presence and 26 national pavilions. “Pioneers of Tomorrow” returns on 24 July.