An article by Ben Barrass recently posted on LinkedIn:
What should we take from the current momentum behind international defence alliances focused on developing the next generation of military capability?
While there is clear reassurance in the scale, security and shared investment that multinational programmes bring, alongside the uplift in budgets, capability and collective expertise, there is also a growing imperative to ensure that UK SMEs remain an integral and indispensable part of these initiatives.
Ambitious programmes such as GCAP, the trilateral Global Combat Air Programme between the UK, Italy and Japan, and FCAS, the Future Combat Air System led by France, Germany and Spain, represent a step change in scale and ambition. They open up significant opportunities for applied ingenuity, supply chain participation and long-term growth across a broader SME base. However, ensuring that these opportunities translate into tangible value for the UK economy must remain a central priority.
As defence programmes grow in complexity and international participation expands, UK SMEs face a critical question:
How do we secure and sustain a competitive position in an increasingly volatile and crowded landscape?
My recent conversations with industry leaders and supply chain representatives at DPRTE 2026 confirmed that the answer lies in delivering undeniable, multi-faceted value. In a highly competitive, internationally offset environment, SMEs must offer more than just engineering resource; we must bring clarity to complexity, ownership of project success and be delegated authorities to deliver the quality data required.
It will be a challenge to ensure opportunities distribute into the highly capable SME community and don’t concentrate in a few specific organisations or supply partners. Ensuring UK SMEs remain visible, competitive and indispensable is vital if we are to be part of the sustained opportunity for the UK.
I believe UK SMEs can secure their position by:
Leveraging Cross-Sector Expertise: Transferring our proven approaches from aerospace, marine, and energy sectors to solve similar technical and regulatory challenges in defence.
Fostering Collaborative Working: Integrating co-operatively with OEMs' internal teams to provide a fresh perspective and independent expertise. Collaborating with other SMEs to bring divergence of ideas and view.
Taking Accountability: Building compliance in by accepting authority, taking ownership of project success and accountability for delivery, saving time and mitigating risk for prime contractors.
Driving Lifecycle Value: Optimising value across the whole project lifecycle, ensuring that designs not only meet crucial weight, size, integration, and performance criteria, but are supported through testing, manufacturing and while in service.
If UK SMEs can consistently deliver these dependable solutions, we won't just be competing for a slice of a diminishing, widely shared pie, we will be driving the technological advancement that makes the entire programme a success.
I am confident at Cascade we offer these abilities and insights, alongside our engineering capability, but I have no doubt we need to do more to showcase and demonstrate our expertise more widely to gain the attention we need. How are other businesses preparing for the evolving dynamics of international defence collaborations?