Minister for Defence Readiness and Industry Luke Pollard MP's speech at DVD 2026
Minister Pollard highlighting the importance of collaboration between government, industry and private finance, to strengthen the capabilities of the British Army and boost economic growth.
Good afternoon. It’s nice not doing a speech in a suit, I have to say, and actually be able to get out there and get some mud going on, which is, I think, one of the great benefits of this event here. So good afternoon.
It is a real privilege to be here at DVD 26. I want to thank Rupert, our new National Armaments Director, and his team, for the work they’ve put in, their colleagues in the British Army for all the work that they’ve done. And my thanks to industry for what is a fantastic showcase of the warfighting abilities of our British Army, but also the potential of what could come next as well.
Strengthening that connective tissue between defence, industry and what is to come is an important part of delivering not just the Strategic Defence Review that was delivered last year, but also the Defence Investment Plan that was delivered only a few months ago. Now land is an essential domain, integral to the government’s mission to re-arm and reindustrialise the UK and it’s this domain that is one of the cornerstones of our deterrence as a nation.
And as an industrial sector, the land domain not only underpins the fighting power and lethality of the British Army, but also reinforces the argument that defence is an engine for growth.
Now, although I’m now supposed to say reindustrialisation, every time I say engine for growth due to the swapping Prime Ministers, the great advantage of that is both are true: that if we spend an increasing defence budget more with British companies, we create more good, decent jobs at home. We increase our industrial capacity, which increases our deterrent ability, as well as getting the latest kit and equipment into the hands of our warfighters.
And that’s why the land domain is so important, because this is not just a factory based in one part of the UK. The companies that work in the land domain make huge contributions to every single region of our country and the supply chain furthermore, in every single part. It is a success story that we don’t talk about enough, and it is one that is integral to defence’s contribution to reindustrialising the country. And that is an essential part of delivering on the increased defence spending that the Treasury is making available for defence.
And we can see that whether that’s from Merthyr and Oakdale, Telford, Stockport and Newcastle and across the nationwide network of suppliers, not just big companies but increasingly more SMEs getting involved in defence supply chain. This is a good thing, and this exhibition here allows us to talk about the ingenuity, the technology being brought forward and the people behind it, and that essential partnership between the public sector and the private sector that we need more of.
And as we reform defence procurement to be faster, because I think it’s fair to say that everyone in this room, regardless of what kind of clothing you are wearing today, will know that defence procurement is not as fast as we would all like it to be. We’re speeding it up. And some of the examples I’m going to talk about today are good examples of how we’re accelerating procurements, so we can get more kit and equipment faster and deliver greater value for that increased defence spending.
Now, I’m really grateful for the progress that we have collectively made as an industry and as a government over the past two years. As a government, we’ve delivered the biggest sustained increase in defence spending since the Cold War, and the land warfare sector here has been a recipient of that increased defence spending, and it has a bright future ahead.
Now, our Defence Investment Plan laid out £298 billion worth of spending over the next four years, and we’ve secured a portfolio of land warfare modernisation programs within that Defence Investment Plan that will not only invest in British industry, but also give the British Army the kit and equipment they need, and provide the opportunity possible for those platforms to be exportable as well, working with our allies at the same time.
Now, that model and that funding is vital if we’re going to deliver the Recce Strike model that has been set out so clearly by CGS. That’s built around better targeting, better battlefield surveillance and more lethal long range fire, an increase in lethality of our British forces, to give us a generational upgrade in the abilities of the British Army. That’s not only about long range fire, but if you took long range fire as the example of the upgrades over the next four years, we’re investing £190 million in short range ballistic missiles, £400 million in inexpensive one-way attack drones and weapons, and £220 million in Project Nyx to build an advanced armed autonomous drones to fly alongside our Apache helicopters.
That’s about improving the lethality and delivering against CGS’s 20:40:40 strategy, which has been baked into the Defence Investment Plan. Now, that will be collectively a higher resolution picture of the battlefield and increase the effectiveness and speed of our targeting.
Now we’re investing a combined £4.4 billion to take forward Boxer, Ajax and Challenger programmes over the next four years and £370 million to roll out Project Asgard, which has proven itself as the brains behind the Recce Strike concept. And that has certainly worked in Estonia, we’re rolling it out to more parts of the British Army as well. Now enabling our forward land force to fuse existing capabilities such as armoured vehicles with drones and other new capabilities, is vital to deliver that new type of deterrence that we need in the 21st century.
These programmes sit alongside our new multi-million pound investment in new medium helicopters from Leonardo in Yeovil, uncrewed ground vehicles with more announcements to come in that area, counter-drone technologies and a successor to the venerable Land Rover. You might not have noticed, but apparently there’s some vehicles being exhibited out there. There’s not many of them on the show, so you probably would have missed them on there. But it is good to see such a competitive option.
So much of the stuff that we buy that I sign off as the Minister comes from single source procurement. That’s the right thing when we’re dealing with high end procurements, advanced British technologies. But for a Land Rover replacement, having that competitive edge with companies far and wide providing options for defence to choose from, I think shows a market working well and we’re making progress against that.
Now look, over the next four years we’re investing more than £19 billion in land warfare capabilities, as well as £11 billion in weapons and ammunition. So, when we talk about as a politician what we inherited, hollowed out and underfunded forces, we inherited brilliant people, a structure that has at its heart a real desire to renew and rearm. And that is what this increased defence funding helps enable: new technologies being brought forward.
And today, I’m delighted to unveil progress with three of our latest investments in that are vital components of Recce Strike.
First, to equip our soldiers with highly mobile ISR capabilities that will give them round the battlefield tactical awareness. We’ve signed contracts with three British SMEs worth a combined £16 million for more than a thousand small ISR drones.
Second, to replace the ageing Watchkeeper system, I can today confirm that we have placed a contract with Tekever to bring twenty four of their AR5 drones into service by 2029. Together, these systems give us a ‘David and Goliath’ style mix of spy drones, equipping the Army with small, agile, rapidly deployable systems for the frontline alongside sustained high fidelity intelligence from the AR5 over longer range and durations.
And thirdly, I can also announce today that we have awarded contracts to MBDA and Thales to explore how we can develop the tech behind a new beyond-line-of-sight anti-armour weapon system, a capability that the British Army has not had since Swingfire, left service over 30 years ago, a capability that can drastically improve the ability of our land forces to strike and survive on the modern battlefield.
Now, these are just three procurements that will not only demonstrate how we’re evolving operationally in response to the lessons from Ukraine, but they’re programmes that demonstrate how we have reformed our procurement processes in response to what we’ve learned from our friends in Ukraine.
That’s more collaboration and innovation, so that our kit is designed to be built to evolve with the changing threats and technologies, with more focus on developing sovereign capabilities to build our industrial resilience and more backing for UK SMEs and UK-based businesses to create and sustain highly skilled, well-paid – wherever possible I say this as a Labour MP – unionised jobs throughout the UK, backing the men and women that work in our industry with a bright career, whether they’re mid-career, being retrained with the latest technology, or joining for the very first time. There is a bright career ahead in the defence industry.
We have not always been able to be as vocal in saying so, but collectively one of our missions of all of us in this room today, perhaps especially me, but not just me, is to tell the story about this investment and what it brings to our communities. Opportunities, reindustrialisation increased deterrence and warfighting abilities. There’s three priorities that defence has for the next quarter that you’ll hear the new Defence Secretary, Wes Streeting, talk about frequently.
Again, all those three things are true. And as defence, we’ve been very good at not telling anyone about the benefits of defence spending here in the UK. Our job now, as we look ahead to a decade of rising defence spending, is to make the case that defence spending delivers good jobs at home, as well as delivering us the national security improvements that keep the UK and our allies safe.
Now, I make no apologies for directing more of that rising defence budget at British-based firms and UK workers, and on the face of it, that could appear protectionist. But it’s not. It’s a strategic decision that we have taken, and a departure from previous decisions taken by previous governments. Because when taxpayers see both a security and an economic dividend from increased spending on defence, it helps us to increase the size, not just of the public coalition in support of that investment, it also increases our ability to defend the nation as well.
Now, that’s why telling our story is so important. And so, I want to challenge you to tell the story of your work as well. I don’t want anyone giving away anything ‘secret squirrel’. But I do want you to talk about how investment in your businesses, in the systems the British Army is using in international collaborations, as well as investment and R&D at home, creates opportunities and good jobs. That is a story that helps reinforce the case for increased defence spending, and helps the public realise that, in the face of increased threats that they can see on their TV screens and on their phones, there is a clear plan being delivered to keep our nation safe.
Now then, stories of innovation and opportunity, and whilst it might sound not always sexy, stories about procurement reform, are vital. We need to tell the story about cutting-edge design, sci-fi like capabilities, and battle-winning kit, much of it actually on display out there. Stories of reindustrialisation that rebuild pride in our industrial base and our communities, and young people succeeding in the communities that they call home. These are the stories that work hard for the taxpayer. That show the taxpayer that defence is working hard for the investment they are making in the MOD and in our national security. Getting more bang for our buck literally in increasing lethality, but certainly value for money as well, and delivering more for our armed forces.
Now, the three contracts that I’ve highlighted today have all three of those elements. They will help sustain and create jobs in SMEs in Hampshire, Surrey and around Exeter, and in primes in Bolton and Glasgow. These contracts apply the lessons from Ukraine. They’ll fuel innovation, sovereign capabilities and export opportunities at the same time, and they will help galvanise our industrial base. And in a more dangerous and unpredictable world, they will give the soldiers of our British Army a clearer picture of the battlefield and greater lethality on it.
Now, the government’s guiding mantra are backing UK firms pays us back four times over: in military strength, in industrial strength, in economic growth and in public support for defence. It takes us closer to achieving our objectives of doubling the Army’s fighting power by 2027, tripling it by 2030 and growing it tenfold by 2035. That’s not just the government’s story. That’s your story as well. And across the British Army, procurement, and industry, it’s one that if we tell, well, we’ll deliver not only added effect but greater support for defence spending.
Now, for my part, this Autumn I’ll be working hard to stimulate more sources of investment in defence. You thought having the Strategic Defence Review, the Defence Industrial Strategy and the Defence Investment Plan was enough for large documents? Oh no, there’s more to come. The Defence Finance and Investment Strategy will be published just after the budget this year. It will talk to how we crowd in private capital, into core defence and into our supply chain, how we use that private capital, both from venture, sovereign and other forms to support our R&D, support our bringing products to market, grow and stabilize SMEs, especially in the Valley of Death, as they go up through the TRL levels for their products.
And it will help deliver via the new Defence Investment Unit that we’ve established in the MOD, something that will get more of that private capital to where it matters. Now for small businesses, growing businesses, start-ups, and the success of the Defence Tech Unicorn Fund, where the MOD has invested a small amount of money helping grow businesses, we have now more defence tech unicorns in Britain than anywhere else across Europe. This is a success story we need to talk about and that will help us build towards the Defence Investment Summit, which will take place in early December, where will be an opportunity for financial institutions and our partners to announce their own investments in defence, both in core defence, the investable opportunities that the MOD is providing for commercial partners to invest in the systems that we use and the products that we use, but also to support our defence supply chain again.
And to each of you in industry, I want to challenge you ahead of that, to tell the story about why defence is a great place to work, why it is a great place to invest, and in particular, why establishing a defence business or growing a defence business in Britain is right, not just to access that growing defence budget here, to provide a market to export to our friends as well.
I saw that firsthand at the recent Guildhall event hosted by the Lady Mayoress of the City of London, seeing the work of the Defence Office for Small Business Growth, bringing together small defence companies with investors to be able to marry opportunity and capital to grow and provide more opportunities. The Defence Office for Small Business Growth is growing itself every single month this year until it gets to full operating capacity at the end of this year. It is a story about having a single gateway for small businesses so they can better access defence contracts, better access markets that they can use to grow and export.
Now, all of these things I’m impatient to deliver faster. I’m from Plymouth, I’m an impatient jammer. I want things to go quicker. I know you want things to go quicker as well. This is a collective effort to deliver this.
But as the world grows darker, it is incumbent on all of us to tell the story, to build the case, to bring forward technology faster, to get rid of stupid rules, to help us reform procurement quicker so we can speed through the contracting process to deliver capabilities. And if we do that, we can not only attract new investment into defence, but we can show our people, our allies and the defence sector that this is an area of our economy worthy of investment, worthy of attention and worthy of good careers that keep us safe, protect our freedoms and support our way of life.
We have a lot of work to be doing, but I’m really excited to see so much of that work that you are all doing here on showing the vehicles and platforms that we have outside. Let’s keep going. Thank you.