European spending on defence has now reached the stage of what could be termed “aggressive rearmament” in response by the threats from Russia, and the and the increased likelihood of USA’s longer term move to Isolationism.

European defence spending has doubled over the past decade by moving beyond “emergency procurement” to longer term industrial restructuring, and technology is playing an important role in structural integration of the once fragmented defence industry.

Placing technology on a war footing. shifts the focus from measured but cost-effective defence contracting to quicker commercially led innovation, where civilian technologies such as AI and drones are integrated into the military technology. Defence procurement, which has historically been a minefield of procrastination and ill-judged decision making by Ministries of Defence, has been speed up to secure critical supply chains against economic warfare.

Transition to a wartime technological model involves important strategic changes. Amidst the UK Government’s own Political distractions, a widely anticipated Defence Investment Plan is anticipated during 2026.The Defence Investment Plan will set out not only how the UK will increase its Defence Spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2030 but iron out the current problems of projected project overspends, pay increases and future Defence procurement plans. The mechanisms for placing technology on a Wartime Footing are likely to feature in the detail of the Defence Investment Plan

Speeding Up Procurement

Historically Military procurement cycles take years. By contrast modern warfare technology evolves in weeks. Western militaries increasingly rely on commercial technology and dual-use hardware. They partner commercially with both start-ups for niche, new and innovative services, as well as technology companies which can provide scaled up and mass production and servicing requirements.

Civil-military technology integration - the harmonisation of commercial innovations and defence requirements to create a dual-use technological ecosystem - is a critical mechanism for speeding up procurement. Harmonisation is not without considerable technical and logistical integration risks, as it involves aligning defence missions with commercial R&D, as well as establishing open technology standards, and streamlining acquisition channels.

In order to align R&D with defence strategy so called civilian technologies such as advanced communications and artificial intelligence have to be adapted for military purposes. Military officials have to provide detailed briefing to Commercial technology developers so that they understand military constraints, requirement and capabilities early in the research stages to identify dual or multi-use capabilities.

Open systems architecture is required in order to move from proprietary military hardware to commercial open software architectures, which enable turnkey upgrades across legacy and civilian systems however, inter-operability standards

must ensure that the technology meets strict defence, cybersecurity, and supply chain transparency standards which are necessary to safely integrate new equipment into joint national military forces NATO or similar coalition forces networks.

Flexible funding mechanisms, which use government-backed innovation funds, venture capital networks, and phased prototyping contracts, can help technology scale up from civilian concepts to operational deployment.

Finally, work culture integration has to underpin the procurement process. Researchers, engineers, and personnel have to be able to move confidently and willingly between the private sector and defence agencies to bridge cultural gaps in innovation and capability. By implementing strict security and digital operating and maintenance training, civilian staff can handle dual-use technology, essential for understanding the operational and intelligence consequences of digital footprints.

Testing, Refining and Sustaining

Prototype technology has to be tested as soon as is realistically possible in realistic, stressful environments to determine whether the civilian technology accelerates decision-making or creates unnecessary friction in a Military environment. Integration of commercial technology has to be accompanied by a sustainable lifecycle plan, which comprises maintenance, software updates, and scaling to maintain continuous operational readiness.

Agile Contracting

The Military Initiatives, which set a priority on rapid prototyping and commerciality, deploy different models for what has become known as “agile contracting.”

By way of contrast the U.S. Department of War’s has adopted an “Acquisition Transformation Strategy” (ATS), while the UK Ministry of Defence's has an Integrated Procurement Model (IPM) designed to drastically speed up how the Armed Forces acquire equipment. Rather than directly adopting the US Acquisition Model, the MoD formulated the IPM in 2024 to shift away from slow, overly complex legacy processes adopted after the end of the Cold War.

The US ATS is a sweeping overhaul of defence procurement, which abandons bureaucratic, compliance-heavy processes and adopts rapid, wartime-focused execution. Speed, commercial solutions, and risk tolerance are the key attributes of the model The model replaces a culture of rigid regulatory compliance with an emphasis on execution, speed, and strategic risk.

The foundations of this shift in mind set are:

• Industry-Driven Solutions by prioritising commercially available, off-the-shelf technologies first - accepting hardware and software that meet baseline deployment requirement even if they don't tick l every niche requirement.
• Expansion of participation by non-traditional defence contractors and small businesses, while advocating for legislative reform to minimize frivolous bid protests that stall procurement timeliness.
• Flatter decision-making hierarchies are accompanied by consolidated, bureaucratic functions to make decisions at speed.
• A shift in focus from paperwork and toward aggressive procurement, encouraging acquisition professionals to act boldly and take calculated risks.
• Digital-first operations, leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) and digital engineering to speed up contract awards, supply chain tracking, and vendor integration.

The UK IPM replaces older, fragmented processes with five core features:

• Prioritisation of the delivery of usable equipment (defined as 60-80% functionality) into the hands of the armed forces quickly. This equipment is then continuously upgraded as threats evolve and technology matures. The process avoids delays caused by rigid upfront requirements.
• A single, consistent intake system where the MOD’s Defence Equipment & Support unit, evaluates and challenges requirements from day one of its adoption.
• The subjection of specification requirements to immediate scrutiny by military commands, scientists such as the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, and export control experts to ensure tech viability and integration capabilities across all branches.
• Assess the potential for international sales from the start, strengthening the resilience of UK industrial supply chains.
• Engagement with the private sector earlier in development so suppliers become strategic allies not merely transactional vendors.

Autonomous Systems and AI Dominance

Battlefield systems increasingly resemble games consoles. They are defined by the availability of commercial-off-the-shelf components, in particular drones. Such commoditisation of components enables massive, scalable production.

Defence organisations are embarking the large scale integration of AI in operational planning, particularly with respect to targeting and intelligence analysis. Effective operational planning requires predictive modelling and deployment of simulations. Targeting requires detection, identification, classification and tracking of objects. Intelligence requires rapid data analysis and detection of anomalies. AI provides situational environment and decision-making support for human operators who make decisions to engage and attack. This allows for accountability of actions which may have to be evaluated the purposes of collateral damage and international law criteria.

Supply Chain Resilience and Energy Security

A wartime tech footing requires an industrial base that is immune to disruption by potential adversaries. To that end European countries are directing their efforts and resources on state-directed resilience by seeking to build domestic manufacturing capabilities for critical components and materials. NATO and European nations are also focusing on critical infrastructure by prioritising the protection of submarine cables, power grids, and digital communication networks to secure energy and economic resilience.

The Role of Alternatives (“Manual Contingencies”)

Digital systems do not have “Infallible resilience.” Digital networks and signals suffer increasingly vulnerable to electronic warfare and cyberattacks. Putting technology on a war footing also means preparing for its loss

When digital systems are interrupted basic combat skills determine operational military success. Navigation reverts to reliance on paper maps, sextants, and traditional magnetic compasses allow units to navigate contested electromagnetic spectrums whilst leaving no digital footprints Military field units and crews use visual identification, map-based coordinate plotting, and manual ballistics calculators to engage targets when computers are jammed. Analogue communications in the form physical couriers, signal flags, and runner-based networks are used to ensures vital operational commands continue to flow.

Military organisations focus heavily on using combat as a training mechanism. Military education frameworks continue to place emphasis on deploying basic infantry and analytical skills alongside digital proficiency so that troops can seamlessly revert to “analog methods.” Retention of legacy, analog-capable weapon systems and hard-copy processes remain essential back-up when network-centric operations fail.

The integration of low-tech redundancy ensures that military personnel remain the agile, resilient core of the battlefield rather than vulnerable through exclusive reliance on hardware, which never achieves 100% resilience.

Bob McDowall

June 2026