Michael Fallon addresses DSEI with exhibition keynote address

A lot has changed around the world since the last DSEI show in 2015. Britain’s second woman prime minister moved into number 10, which was closely followed by the UK referendum to leave the European Union. Donald Trump has moved into the White House, we have experienced further incidents of extremist terrorism and the threat from North Korea has been exacerbated.

This was a fact that was certainly not lost on the minister who, in his address, commented: “Since we were last here we’ve seen North Korea threatening nuclear Armageddon and waves of cyber crime like the WannaCry virus that affected our hospitals and businesses. We’ve seen terror spreading across the world hitting us here in London and in Manchester. The doomsday clock has been moved 30 seconds closer to midnight, and that doesn’t seem an exaggeration. So as the danger perforates the globe, the stock of defence rises, and the demand for the very best and the safest equipment continues to grow.”

Fallon went on to explain that Britain is making full use of its military capabilities around the globe, whether that is despatching aircraft and frigates to help the humanitarian efforts in the Caribbean, which has recently been devastated by hurricane Irma, or providing support to Eastern European allies.

“Our response has to evolve to meet these new challenges,” said Fallon. “We’ve chosen as a government to grow our defence budget by 0.5%, and next year we will be allocating £37bn. We’re using that money to invest in the full array of high end kit across all domains. In the past year alone we’ve seen a flood of announcements. From sailing our new carriers, testing armoured vehicles, and the arrival of more and more F35 aircraft.

“In addition, we’ve set aside from that growing budget some £800m to work with industry academia to develop the disruptive capabilities that keep us ahead. Take big data for example, we’ve given 30 firms a share of three million pounds to develop machine learning algorithms and artificial intelligence to crunch all the big data collected by our vehicles and translate it into a four dimensional picture of the battle space. Ships were tested last year that are able to look through information and properly recognise threats in the same way a human being learns to recognise fear, allowing the crew to predict where system failure might occur.”

Fallon highlighted that the warnings around the march of machines are inevitable but stressed that software is not a substitute for soldiers, sailors or pilots, but is there to optimise their time and their effectiveness. Computers are simply better at riffling through data and doing mundane tasks, just as robots are better suited to picking their way through bomb strewn battlefields. “That’s why I’m announcing today that we’ve signed a new contract worth up to £55m with Harris Corporation for 56 bomb disposal robots equipped with high definition cameras, lighting fast data links and adjustable manipulation arm,” added Fallon.

“These are sophisticated systems that give advanced haptic feedback which can allow operators to feel their way through the intricate process of disarming the terrorists’ favourite weapon, the Improvised Explosive Device (IED), and to do so from a safe distance. The robots will never replace humans, it takes a trained soldier to search a house, calm a villager and win hearts and minds in a warzone. But we’re enabling machines to take more of the load so that people can get on with the hard work of saving lives. And at the same time were making sure that our troops have the technology to protect themselves in difficult and dangerous situations. So I’m also announcing today the DSTL has placed a £10m contract with Leonardo to improve the survival ability and protection of land armoured vehicles by fitting them with an active protection system that can detect and defeat threat missiles within 100 milliseconds - less than half the time it takes a human to react.”

Although defence budgets are rising international threats have undoubtedly intensified since 2015, as has the demands on our armed forces. And so, Fallon pointed out that collaboration will be key going forward if we are going to make the most of all our resources. He said: “We need to work together across the defence enterprise. Our new aircraft carriers prove this point - built in blocks by over 10,000 people across the UK before being shipped to Scotland for assembly. This is a truly cooperative national enterprise. Or consider F35 - an innovative partnership between BA Systems and Northrop Grumman working alongside our defence, electronics and components agency. The partnership was so successful that it was chosen as the global support provider for F35.”

Another aspect that Fallon touched on that will be vital for the future of the sector was competition, stating that as we look to life post-Brexit and spread our wings further across the world, it is high time that we do more to compete for a bigger share of this international export market. He said: “We already have an enviable reputation for fast manufacturing, we’re leaders in intelligent systems and we perform strongly in the international market, securing defence orders of nearly £6bn pounds last year. We retain our position as the second largest defence exporter globally in the last ten years. And it is time now for us to build exportability into our thinking and enabling a more open architecture to our platforms that can plug-and-play with different capabilities.”