DTS Paper.qxp - Royal Aeronautical Society

terms of technology trade with the US. It also remains the case
that European governments still constrain investment in their
national defence industries. Recent moves to limit national
protectionism in the EU defence market — notably through the
establishment of the European Procurement Agency — should
improve matters. This is still too little, if not too late, to match the
relative openness of the UK defence market and to create a more
balanced and competitive international environment for UK
defence companies. The drift of both the DIS and particularly the
DTS is to see much of the future military aerospace provision to
be satisfied from a global market. With the exception of
commitments to aspects of UAS research, much of the current
military aerospace technology base will steadily diminish. The
mission systems sector should find business in upgrading and
serial development but, without lead platforms developed in the
UK, equipment companies may find international competition
even fiercer. The temptation to move more of their operations
and research offshore to access a new generation of aerospace
platform will become even more intense.
36. The DTS recognises the importance generally of international
collaboration but there is no overt preference for partners, other
than the benefits co-operation may bring to satisfying the MoD’s
needs outside of those associated with maintaining Appropriate
Sovereignty. Perhaps more intriguing is the direction implied by
the less well publicised US Defense Science Board–UK MoD joint
paper on co-operation in defence critical technologies. The core
of fundamental government-to-government research cooperation
is likely to be with the US 12. Co-operation with the US,
combined with the steady drift of UK defence company
investment in the US, could lead to long-term dependence. The
MoD also recognises that working with the US is often based on
what the UK can bring to a collaborative programme and does
not necessarily generate access to new technology that can be
readily transferred to the UK. A closer alignment of industrial and
technological strategy with France and Germany could mitigate
some of the risks of dependence on the US. European
collaboration in the past has usually delivered a more egalitarian
access to jointly developed technology. The Government has said
that it would like to discuss the UK’s strategy with European allies,
notably the French, but progress will have to accelerate to make
much difference. The MoD prefers to manage this on a bilateral
basis or in a small group of nations. It does not have much
confidence in the multilateral or pan-European level.
7.0 THE FUTURE OF THE AEROSPACE PROFESSIONAL
A new skill set and career pattern?
37. The DTS poses a major challenge to the conventional view of
an aerospace professional. Working on defence projects will
remain a stimulating and rewarding intellectual career — indeed,
the more so given the complexity of some of the high level
systems envisaged for the future. This may also be enhanced by
the MoD’s determination both to increase the rate of technology
12 US Defense Science Board Report & UK Defence Science Advisory
Council, Task Force on Defense Critical Technologies, Washington, March
2006. The areas of interest were: Advanced Communication
Environments, Persistent Surveillance; Power Sources/Management for
Small Distributed Networked Sensors; High Performance Computing; and
Defence Critical Electronic Components. With the exception of electronic
components, the MoD was reluctant to publish its list of specifically
critical technologies. Many of these may well relate to nuclear weapons
and cryptographic applications, and advanced surveillance and pattern
recognition concepts which are relevant to internal and external securityrelated
interests. The report concluded that both countries should
actively seek to work together in these fields. Its work was covered by a
US ITAR exemption.
10
Aerospace and the UK Defence Industry and Technology Strategy
insertion and better use of civil technology; raising the prospect
of a more dynamic research environment. Equally, the MoD will
depend more upon the university sector for research into
aerodynamics and structures. This may improve the relationship
between MoD and academia and encourage still better links with
industry — existing collaborative work on UAS technology
concepts point the way perhaps. The key caveat here is the
continued shrinkage in the UK’s science and engineering
personnel base, undermined by a further fall in students taking
up the ‘hard’ disciplines. Many of the current generation are
foreign, some of whom may stay in the UK, but all too many will
return home to provide the base for future competition.
38. The major opportunities for the aerospace professional are
likely to be in electronics, IT and systems design and integration.
In some views of the future, some aspects of the design and
integration process may become more akin to the architectural
profession, with some separation between design and
construction. There are clear and fundamental requirements for
systems engineers as well as human factors specialists. Through
life management will also put a premium on well-trained and
experienced project managers.
39. Overall, however, maintaining design teams and creating a
more flexible and adaptable industry capable of doing more than
just churning out successive generations of familiar platform
concepts will test companies and government alike. This is a
subtler challenge than simply maintaining employment in the
defence industries. The demand will be for flexible, adaptable
professionals, perhaps with a wider range of educational
experience than the traditional aerospace engineer. Multidisciplinary
approaches and awareness will be a key requirement.
Manufacturing and employment
40. On the manufacturing side, there will still be high value
employment in defence aerospace sector but again not
necessarily drawn from the traditional metal-based engineering
skills set. The numbers of future platforms in any event will
diminish still further and the growth area for employment will be
in servicing and upgrading. It is unlikely that the most
sophisticated UAS types will be bought in large numbers and
other UAS platforms are very simple pieces of equipment (even if
their systems are not), and in many cases readily acquired off-theshelf
from a rapidly growing global UAS industry. By the same
token, the UK supply chain will have to accept changes in work
patterns and some of its established elements inevitably will face
obsolescence or be required to seek business outside the defence
aerospace sector.
41. It is unlikely in any case that the MoD, despite attempts to
keep the unions onside, will be swayed by the ‘jobs in Britain’
argument. However, the UK Government may have to do
something to protect high value human assets, especially in
aerospace, one of its few remaining high-value manufacturing
sectors which acts as a focus and stimulus for much of the
country’s engineering talent. Maintaining the human base will
not come cheap if one is serious about maintaining real capability
but it should be an essential element in a long-term strategy.
Technology demonstration and ‘new blood’
42. This might have implied a commitment to an expanded
programme of ‘technology demonstration’ that not only allows
fundamental ideas and concepts to be explored and ‘de-risked’
but also helps to keep design teams together and to attract ‘new
blood’ in the ever-increasing intervals between concrete projects.
However, as the MoD seeks greater involvement by industry in
applied research and technology demonstration, companies may