Collaborate to protect… and innovate to win

The world is at a watershed moment in terms of global security. Multiple active conflicts have placed war at the front of public consciousness. Today’s adversaries are more agile, unpredictable, and connected than ever before, using technology to take conflict beyond the battlefield.

The UK public senses this shift. Polling commissioned by PA and Opinium shows that 62 percent of UK citizens believe they’re less safe than five years ago, identifying cyber attacks on critical infrastructure as the biggest threat, followed by terrorism and conventional war.

This growing unease highlights the severity of the challenge, demanding a new, connected approach to defence that merges the resources and resilience of government and industry.

A defence ecosystem at a crossroads

Government and industry face the escalating risk that, in the event of conflict, the UK’s current systems and capabilities will fail to respond effectively. Compounding this is growing uncertainty over who adversaries are, where they’ll strike, and how.

This has created systemic vulnerabilities. Trust has eroded, and while innovation is often talked about, it’s rarely put into practice. As adversaries move faster and more unpredictably, many defence organisations are stuck with legacy capabilities, rigid specifications, and arm’s-length transactional relationships between the public and private sectors. Successfully defending against evolving threats requires designing a system that's adaptable, not rigid. A system for collaboration, not isolation. One that looks towards a future where we transform for flexible and collaborative capabilities, ready to face new threats.

Building trust through collective action

Nearly half of the UK public (49 percent) see the UK government’s role in addressing security challenges as vital. A similar number place responsibility with the armed forces (49 percent) and national security agencies (51 percent). This divided opinion reflects the reality that no single organisation can keep the UK safe alone.

It’s not just UK organisations that need to join the fray: international cooperation is key. The public recognise this importance, with 43 percent saying global collaboration is needed to keep the UK and the world safe. But, at the same time, nearly one in five worry it could open up risks or cause conflicts.

How can government and industry create the right conditions for international collaboration, while promoting UK prosperity?

1. Underpin contracts with collaboration

In recent years, structural constraints, political pressures, and outdated operating models have shaped a culture that rewards cost-cutting over creativity, and compliance over adaptability. To meet today’s complex threats, contracts and collaboration between industry, the government, and international partners must shift to long-term partnerships with shared outcomes. However, today, these agreements are largely transactional. Reshaping incentives with stakeholders (including alliances like NATO, AUKUS, and the Five Eyes) will underpin truly collaborative contracts.

2. Invest in talent and workforce flexibility

Maintaining national security requires a skilled, adaptable workforce with multiple opportunities and development paths. Although the sector supports over 443,000 jobs, our research shows that gender imbalances and skills shortages persist.

A lack of younger recruits is another major challenge. One in four Gen Z respondents are highly open to working in the sector, compared to a third of those aged 28-43. Worryingly, almost half (46 percent) of Gen Z respondents have weak, or no, openness to a role in the sector.  Flexible career paths that enable upskilling, cross-skilling, and movement across sectors are key to building a future-fit workforce.

3. Focus on digital transformation and supply chain resilience

As threats evolve, defence organisations must invest in adaptable technologies that support multidomain operations and allied collaboration. Integrating AI, extended reality, and advanced data analysis both on the front line and behind the scenes can give the UK and its allies a rare competitive edge in an unpredictable security landscape.

Disrupted supply chains and contested environments are testing the resilience of defence logistics. To stay ahead, supply chains must be agile and tech-enabled. That means designing defence innovations for exportability from the outset, backed by clear market access and funding strategies that strengthen global competitiveness.

4. Modernise procurement to deliver faster

Traditional procurement can’t keep pace with today’s threats. There’s a clear need to redesign outmoded processes around agility and adaptability. Approaches such as spiral development and minimum deployable capability will accelerate delivery. And international partnerships will sustain a competitive edge – such as the UK-EU Security and Defence Partnership that strengthens cooperation on sanctions and joint investment in defence industrial bases. The UK Government has also committed to further develop relationships and trade partnerships with India, Africa, and the Gulf.

5. Reimagine defence as a driver of UK economic growth

To truly bolster UK defence and position it as national growth driver, we need a new approach – not only to defence acquisition, but also to financing and investment. The Defence & Economic Growth Taskforce set a compelling vision for defence as a catalyst for UK growth. Using its core recommendations for targeted investment and a new collaborative ‘Team UK’ mindset as a platform, now is the time for the UK Government to join forces with stakeholders across defence and financial services to define and implement the policy, regulatory and market-shaping interventions that will stimulate growth.

Collaborate to protect

Decades of focusing on efficiency over resilience have left national defence ecosystems exposed. The need now is not for fixed answers to fixed problems, but for solutions that are intelligent, adaptable, dominant by design, and combine expertise from diverse stakeholders to meet threats with agility and precision.

In doing so, we’ll turn innovation into an advantage, and therefore a deterrent. So we can adapt faster than our adversaries, and lead with confidence – even through uncertainty. We call this innovation dominance – and it’s what will protect the UK and its allies in this new landscape.