The next line of defence: unlocking SME potential in UK defence from policy to practice
Small high-tech defence businesses play a critical role in UK national security, bringing agility, creativity and specialist capabilities to the defence sector.
Yet, their potential remains under-utilised in the defence ecosystem, often due to legacy structures, overwhelming procurement complexity and universal standardisation. We aim to change that.
Unlocking SME potential
Babcock, in partnership with the University of Exeter, has focused on understanding and addressing the barriers and opportunities faced by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in engaging with UK defence supply chains. Based on interviews with pioneering UK SMEs, we confront critical, entrenched
barriers hindering their full potential and have gathered our findings in our landmark report: The Next Line of Defence: Unlocking SME Potential in UK Defence from Policy to Practice.
The report is centred around three key themes
Awareness
Identifying the challenges raised by SMEs that are already addressed by existing government policies, with the objective to proactively raise SME awareness of these policies, empowering them to better leverage available resources.
Action
Highlighting critical challenges identified by SMEs that are readily actionable by the government and can be addressed with speed as quick wins.
Attention
Emerging and under-recognised issues that we need to bring attention to and get on the policy radar, fostering proactive consideration and future solutions.
On 22 January 2026, we launched our Next Line of Defence Report, in partnership with the University of Exeter, as part of a roundtable event.
This crucial event brought together key stakeholders. Hosted by journalist Kirsty Wark, we welcomed Donna Sinnick (Babcock), Dr. Harry Pitts (University of Exeter), Shirley Cooper (Crown Representative) and Mike Tinmouth (ACUA Ocean). Together, we delved into the entrenched barriers facing UK defence SMEs and discussed concrete solutions to unlock their full, innovative potential for the defence supply chain.
