国防科技：国防科技转型-techUK报告发布

November 2024 Defence Technology (DefTech) will not onlyrevolutionise the way military operations areconducted but, in the process, transform theDefence industry itself, opening the marketup to new technologies and new suppliersincluding start-ups and SMEs, and those withdual-use capabilities. Advances in sensing allow ever greater exploitationof the electromagnetic spectrum, enhancingintelligence, surveillance and recognisance (ISR)capabilities. Situational awareness, target acquisition,and threat detection depend on this, as does securecommunication between platforms and war fighters. Autonomy will shape the deployment and positioningof sensors on uncrewed systems in the air, surface orsub-surface, as well as the delivery of weaponssystems and logistics. However, the value of DefTech depends on its ability todraw data from all five domains together, processingand analysing, turning it into something actionable bythe end-user. The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) andLarge Language Models (LLMs) will affect everythingfrom Command and Control (C2) across land, sea,air and space, to anticipating vehicle maintenancerequirements and managing stocks of spare parts.1 The development of platforms and systems acrossall domains and scales – from Tempest to TacticalCommunications – designed to utilise thesecapabilities creates a new urgency in understandingwhat this means for Defence. A radical transformationof the entire Defence enterprise is required, spanningthe Defence centre, delivery organisations, end users,the DefTech community and wider society. Context The conflict in Ukraine has provided the mostgraphic and costly vision of how future wars arelikely to be fought, demonstrating that victorywill be determined not solely by conventionalmass, but also the ability to develop, integrateand deploy advanced technologies at speed. Thewar in Yemen has further highlighted the ability ofnon-state actors to pose a serious, conventionalthreat using comparatively inexpensivecommercial off-the-shelf (COTS) capabilities. The UK requires: •A Ministry of Defence (MOD) that canempower the sector to innovate through clearproblem setting, with the resources to rapidlyprocure its products cost effectively, andthen pull them through to the end-user in theshortest possible time. •A strong, dynamic DefTech sector to ensurethat the UK remains at the forefront ofinnovation, providing solutions to thoseproblems articulated and encounteredby MOD, and learning the lessons fromhow other industries have achievedtransformation. The last decade has been dominated byplatforms and hardware including thosedescribed by the House of Commons DefenceSelect Committee as ‘over-complex, over-budget, over time’.2Despite the visions ofthose in leadership, when it comes to emergingtechnologies, the reality means procurementprocesses inhibit their acquisition, and legacysystems across the Defence Enterprise preventtheir exploitation. •A wider civil society that acknowledgesthe existential threats facing the West, andthe need for both government and privateinvestors to not just remove existing barriersbut encourage and enable greater investment. If the UK could be – as in the assessment Chiefof the General Staff General Sir Roly Walker –three years from war3, the battle of procurementis surely already being waged. Or at least it is bypotential adversaries. Any presumptions aboutprocuring at pace in times of crisis, should becountered with the experience of meeting thedemand for Personal Protective Equipmentduring the COVID-19 pandemic.4 What is DefTech and what are techUKmembers doing in this space? DefTech can be defined as any app, software, ortechnology that allows a constituent of the Defenceenterprise to digitally access, manage, gain insightinto and/or efficiently and securely prosecute militaryoperations, the maintenance of capability and/or theacquisition and deployment of new capability. 2iC’s distributed resilient platform is an underpinningtechnology that enables iterative adoption of DefTech. 2iC is a sovereign UK Small Enterprise (SME) withcustomers that include the UK Ministry of Defence, theUnited States Department of Defense, the AustralianDepartment of Defence and the New Zealand DefenceForce along with globally recognised SystemsIntegrators and Equipment Manufacturers. 2iC hassignificantly contributed to the development of digitalinteroperability standards in Defence and Healthcare. The application of AI within the warfighting domaindominates public understanding of what emergingtechnologies and particularly the role (or lack of) thathumans will play in that. GemaSecure – Unmanned AutonomousSystems The reality is there are myriad ways in whichemerging – and indeed emerged – capabilities willimpact Defence, tackling challenges which are byno means unique to the Defence enterprise. Thisincludes everything from predicting vehicle spare partrequirements, multi-year contract processing, throughto management of the Defen