First Sea Lord launches Northern Navies Initiative

The First Sea Lord, General Sir Gwyn Jenkins, used the inaugural Lord Fisher lecture at RUSI on 29 April to formally launch the Northern Navies Initiative — a Royal Navy-led plan to weld the ten Joint Expeditionary Force navies into an integrated, warfighting-ready maritime force commanded from Northwood. A Statement of Intent was signed at a JEF Chiefs of Navy meeting at Northwood on 23 April. Jenkins is targeting a formal declaration by end-2026 and a hybrid-fleet posture by 2029, citing a near 30% rise in Russian incursions into UK waters over the past two years and dozens of Royal Navy responses to Russian surface vessels in 2025 alone.

The procurement implications for UK industry are substantial. The construct is built around shared systems, common standards, integrated logistics and stockpiles, and training under the Royal Navy's FOST organisation. Jenkins explicitly cited the Type 26 builds for the Royal Canadian Navy and Royal Norwegian Navy as the template for "interchangeability" across allied fleets — meaning UK industrial standards, doctrine and digital networks will increasingly be the price of entry for export wins to JEF nations. Companies positioned in shipbuilding, USVs, P-8 enablers, undersea surveillance, and integrated logistics should expect more Type 26-style coalition opportunities, and Jenkins also confirmed the Future Air Dominance System LUSV demonstrator contract is now expected by September 2026.

MOD wargames supply chain resilience with five primes — The Ministry of Defence ran a major industry wargame on 29 April with Boeing, KNDS, MBDA, Rheinmetall and Tekever, stress-testing how UK supply chains would hold up under sustained large-scale conflict. Defence Readiness and Industry Minister Luke Pollard and National Armaments Director Rupert Pearce framed the exercise as core readiness work flowing from both the Strategic Defence Review and the Defence Industrial Strategy, with findings set to feed directly into ongoing policy and legislative development.

The choice of participants is itself a signal: a deliberate mix of US, European and emerging-tech primes, with Tekever (ISR drones) the standout new entrant and none of BAE, Babcock or Rolls-Royce in the room. Expect the surge-capacity question to harden into procurement requirements over coming months — particularly in munitions, complex weapons and uncrewed systems — and for the SDR's "always on" production pipeline language to translate into contract terms requiring credible scaling plans.

Starmer flags "radical change" on defence in coming weeks — In a 2 May article published ahead of this week's local elections, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer pledged the government would set out how it intends to go "further and faster" on defence in the coming weeks, framing British companies as accounting for over a quarter of Europe's defence industrial base and committing to "build a shared industrial base across our continent, with British industry at the heart." It is the strongest signal yet that publication of the long-delayed Defence Investment Plan is imminent, alongside accompanying announcements on European industrial cooperation. Industry should plan for a packed announcement period and prepare lines that connect existing capabilities to "shared industrial base" framing.

Skyhammer interceptor passes Jordan trial as first UK deliveries near — Cambridge Aerospace's Skyhammer counter-Shahed interceptor missile was successfully tested in Jordan in the past week, with Pollard travelling to Kuwait and Jordan to mark the trial. The first tranche of missiles and launchers is due to be delivered to UK Armed Forces in May, with further deliveries inside six months under the multi-million-pound contract signed less than two weeks before the trial. The award supports 50 new and 125 existing jobs at the veteran-founded UK start-up.

The wider business winning angle is the new National Armaments Director Group Task Force specifically created to accelerate financing and export licensing for Gulf partners working with UK industry — a deliberate copy of the Ukraine support model. For UK suppliers with affordable-mass solutions in air defence, counter-UAS and complex weapons, the door to fast-track Gulf export support is open in a way it was not six months ago.

ARX Robotics and Supacat sign MoU on autonomous land systems — ARX Robotics UK and Supacat signed a Memorandum of Understanding on 29 April to combine ARX's GEREON uncrewed ground vehicles and Mithra autonomous software with Supacat's high-mobility platforms, with a stated aim of expanding UK-based manufacturing and integration. The agreement follows ARX's first British Army contract earlier in April through Task Force RAPSTONE and the company's £45m UK manufacturing commitment of up to 1,800 vehicles annually.

The pairing is a clear bet on Recce-Strike experimentation becoming a programme of record, and on Supacat's HMT family being a default integration host for autonomous payloads. SMEs in autonomy stacks, electronic warfare, counter-UAS and ISR payloads should treat this teaming as an open call for plug-in partners.

NAD Group opens space portfolio industry day — The MOD has invited industry to a National Armaments Director space portfolio briefing day, with registration closing 5 June or earlier if capacity is reached. The session will cover the NAD's full space portfolio, the scope and current status of the ISTARI space-based ISR programme post-SDR, and a Government Commercial Agency briefing on the Space Technology Solutions Dynamic Market — the planned successor to the RM6235 Space-Enabled and Geospatial Services Framework. The estimated ISTARI delivery contract runs August 2027 to August 2031.

For Tier 2 and SME suppliers, the Dynamic Market route is the headline. It is being established under Procurement Act 2023 flexibilities to deliver capability up to TRL 9, including space protect-and-defend tasks. Suppliers without Defence Sourcing Portal credentials and at least Baseline Personnel Security Standard clearance should move now to be eligible to attend.

Engineering Delivery Partner Future contract slips ITT to December — DE&S issued a pipeline notice update on 30 April confirming that the Engineering Delivery Partner Future (EDP-F) contract has been removed from the open Procurement Act 2023 procedure and will now be progressed as a PA23-exempt competition. The Invitation to Tender, originally planned for 30 April 2026, is now expected in December 2026, with all further notices appearing only on the Defence Sourcing Portal. Engineering services bidders relying on the published procurement pathway should re-baseline pursuit plans and engage DSP early.

UK joins CORPUS procurement coalition with Ukraine, Nordics & Italy — A Memorandum of Cooperation was signed in Kyiv on 30 April establishing the Coalition for Resilient Procurement and Unified Support (CORPUS), bringing together the UK, Finland, Italy, Norway, Sweden and Ukraine's Defence Procurement Agency (DOT). DOT director Arsen Zhumadilov chairs in year one. Initial focus is information-sharing on the supplier base, supply-chain resilience and acquisition practice; joint procurement is reserved for later opt-in phases.

The strategic angle for UK industry is the export-licensing question. Zhumadilov used the post-signing press conference to confirm that Ukrainian arms exports — restricted since February 2022 — will become "a reality", with framework details still under discussion. If permits open before the joint-procurement phase, the result will be a third sourcing pathway for European long-range fires and drones, and UK suppliers will face both new competition from combat-proven Ukrainian production and new partnership opportunities into shared force structures.