DTS Paper.qxp - Royal Aeronautical Society

The two current major military aerospace programmes are Typhoon (left), now entering service, and F-35 Lightning II (right) which made its first
flight in December 2006.
1.0 BACKGROUND
1. The MoD has now completed the first iteration of its long-term
strategy for the UK defence technology and industry base (DTIB).
Its approach to the industrial component was outlined in the
Defence Industry Strategy (DIS) paper of December 2005 2. The DIS
has been now complemented by the Defence Technology
Strategy (DTS) published in October 2006. Together these
documents and other ministerial statements set out a 20-25-year
perspective for UK defence procurement and research
investment. This is the most comprehensive policy for the DTIB
ever published by the MoD. While not necessarily offering a
detailed prescription for future procurement decisions, the DIS
and DTS present a framework, a set of guiding principles and an
indication of priorities for both the MoD and industry. As such,
they have been welcomed by industry as a means of guiding its
investment with a higher degree of confidence than hitherto and
enabling companies to play their full part in meeting MoD
requirements over the next decade.
2. This paper discusses the implications for the UK aerospace
industry of the MoD’s DTIB policy as expressed in the DIS and the
DTS 3. It briefly recapitulates the main themes of the two
documents with specific reference to the aerospace sector.
However, the main focus is on the 20-25-year technology strategy
and the likely direction this implies for the UK aerospace industry.
A 50-year perspective is not unrealistic given that the F-35/JSF will
be in front line service for much of this period and Unmanned
Airborne Systems (UAS) concepts will shape air power delivery
whatever the specific platform characteristics they may possess.
3. As the UK sets out to celebrate the first 100 years of manned
aviation and of the first steps in the evolution of a domestic
aircraft/aerospace industry, the following conclusions offered may
be unsettling: the future of combat aviation will certainly confirm
the shift away from aerospace as such to airborne systems, with
conventional manned fixed and rotary wing aeroplanes largely
2 Ministry of Defence, Defence Industrial Strategy, December 2005 and
Ministry of Defence, Defence Technology Strategy, October 2006.
3 A Society view on the DIS was expressed in a memorandum submitted
to the House of Commons Defence Committee, Seventh Report of
Session 2005-06 Defence Industry Strategy, HC 824, May 2006.
providing tactical and logistic support. This will imply on the one
hand a different industrial supply chain and on the other
domestic vulnerability to increased global competition. The DTIB
strategy will undoubtedly help UK industry to make the necessary
adjustments and transition to a new business model, but the
process will not be easy nor without casualties.
2.0 THE UK DEFENCE TECHNOLOGY AND
INDUSTRY STRATEGIES — MAIN THEMES
The changing context of defence technology acquisition
4. The defence environment is changing and at faster rate than at
perhaps any time since the end of WW2. As the DTS puts it:
“Never has there been greater uncertainty in the nature of the
threat faced by the UK, nor has that threat adapted and changed
so rapidly. This demands rapid evolution in our response, both
tactically and in the technologies we deploy to combat the
threats.” 4 The DIS “provided greater transparency of the MoD’s
future defence requirements and, for the first time, set out those
industrial capabilities needed to ensure we can operate our
equipment in the way we choose.” The DTS is designed to provide
a “highly innovative, agile and flexible” approach to defence
research. The key word being ‘strategic’, with an emphasis on
meeting the MoD’s ‘core needs’, which includes a ‘clear emphasis’
on Through Life Capability Management (TLCM) and a
‘comprehensive engagement’ between MoD and its collaborative
partners and its technology supply base.
Appropriate Sovereignty
5. Underpinning both the DIS and the DTS is the concept of
Appropriate Sovereignty. The MoD recognises that a significant
proportion of its equipment needs will be satisfied by overseas
suppliers or foreign-owned companies located in the UK. Foreign
ownership per se is not a problem for the MoD as long as the
work and technology remains on on-shore. The DIS tries to tell
industry “very clearly where, to maintain our national security
and keep the sovereign ability to use our Armed Forces in the way
we choose, we need particular industrial capabilities in the UK.”
Appropriate Sovereignty has three dimensions: strategic
4 DTS, A1.1
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