Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to develop innovative defence technology.

The Ministry of Defence works closely with UK industry and academia, including Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SME), to identify and invest in innovative technologies that address our most pressing capability challenges as well as publishing our future priorities to incentivise investment.

The Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) finds and funds exploitable ideas to support UK Defence and Security quickly and effectively. In the last financial year, DASA allocated over £30 million across more than 150 projects, of which 64% were with SMEs.

Through the Defence Innovation Fund we have invested over £200 million of our commitment to spend around £800 million over a ten-year period.

Over the four years of this Spending Review, Defence will invest over £6.6 billion in Research and Development, supporting the development of battle-winning defence technology as a response to the accelerating pace of technological change.