The project, first unveiled in 2018, is unusual for both its speedy delivery and the close collaboration it involved between the Government and businesses. It has progressed so quickly that the Royal Navy now aims to have the weapon onboard its ships by 2027, despite hold-ups during the pandemic.
Mike Sewart, chief technology officer at QinetiQ, says the Dragonfire is an example of how a “rapid prototyping” – rather than Whitehall issuing a shopping list of requirements – can get cutting-edge technologies into the hands of the military more quickly.
“Technologists, scientists and engineers love problem-solving,” he says, “and in the UK we have genuinely got some of the best people in the world across this industry.
“Giving them problems to solve, built around challenges, will maximise the effect of that brain power.”
In the UK, there are signs the MoD wants to emulate the model adopted by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) in the US – the “blue-sky” investment arm of the Pentagon, which back novel technologies that could have applications in defence.
As part of the commitment to boost spending, a new Defence Innovation Agency (DIA) will be established next year, charged with bringing together the “fragmented defence innovation landscape” under a single body.
The DIA will focus on emerging technologies and invest in SMEs. Some 5pc of the defence budget will be ring-fenced for research and development from 2025-26, with a further 2pc dedicated to exploiting military applications of promising science and technology.
Whether the DIA will be as effective as Darpa – which is credited with incubating everything from the global positioning system (GPS) to stealth aircraft and the Internet – remains to be seen.
The new agency joins a host of other initiatives set up to help SMEs over the years, to mixed success. It is arguably similar to the existing Defence and Security Accelerator, which is tasked with finding and funding “exploitable innovation for a safer future”.
On top of this, the MoD still lacks even “a telephone number with a person at the other end that an SME can speak with”, warns RUSI’s Taylor.
The Government has pushed through various changes that it says will help small businesses get more involved, included in the 2023 Procurement Act.
Officials have also been told to give SMEs more latitude on certain requirements, simplify the bidding process and split big contracts into smaller chunks to let them bid for more work.