Ministry of Defence: Defence Technology Strategy

My right honourable friend the Minister of State for the Armed Forces (Adam Ingram) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement. The Ministry of Defence has today launched the Defence Technology Strategy (DTS) setting out the technologies that are most important to the future provision of military capability for our Armed Forces. The DTS builds on the Defence Industrial Strategy White Paper published in December last year and has been developed in close collaboration with industry and academia. It outlines the research and development priorities on which we must work together to encourage innovation in support of the UK’s front-line forces. This strategy will help MoD and industry to plan future investment in research and development (R&D). It identifies clear R&D priorities, including those areas in which we believe it is important to maintain sovereign control. It highlights opportunities for collaboration and addresses long-term support to the UK's science and technology skill base. Included in the strategy are several initiatives to support and encourage innovation and the science and engineering skill base in the UK. These include a competition of ideas, which will provide rapid funding for innovative research proposals from industry and academia in areas of particular importance to defence, and a grand challenge to produce an autonomous or semi-autonomous system designed to detect, identify, monitor and report a comprehensive range of physical threats in a complex urban environment. Both have been designed to stimulate free-ranging innovation from the widest possible science and technology base. The Defence Technology Strategy sets clear direction for the future and is the foundation for a vibrant and innovative research and development relationship between MoD, industry and academia. It will ensure that the UK Armed Forces continue to benefit from the highest level of technological research and innovation. Copies of the Defence Technology Strategy have been placed in the Library of the House and can be found on the MoD website at www.mod.uk.