Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to accelerate the adoption of emerging technologies across defence.

The Ministry of Defence is taking a range of approaches to accelerate the adoption of emerging technologies. The Office of the Chief Scientific Adviser (OCSA) is leading work to cohere and drive our Defence-wide science, innovation and technology (SIT) enterprise. This includes organisations in National Armaments such as the Defence Science & Technology Laboratory (Dstl) and UK Defence Innovation (UKDI), which is working with Military Commands, innovators and commercial partners to identify operational needs and rapidly develop and exploit promising technologies. Defence is working on a broad range of emerging technologies, including Artificial Intelligence (AI), autonomy, quantum, directed energy weapons and engineering biology. Activity spans research, development, integration, testing and trials, doctrine and policy – all the elements needed to field military capabilities incorporating emerging technologies successfully.