The UK has launched a program to open up its sovereign defense test ranges and facilities to startups and smaller companies, aiming to move new military technology into service faster.
Project Safari, a joint program between the Ministry of Defence (MOD) and QinetiQ, will aim to make it easier for SMEs to use the UK’s test and evaluation (T&E) sites and will streamline the approvals needed for trials. The aim is to prove and deliver technologies such as hypersonic missiles, directed energy weapons and autonomous systems more quickly.
The MOD said companies new to defense, in particular, have faced barriers such as outdated bureaucracy and multiple layers of approval that kept them from testing their ideas and technology in realistic scenarios.
During a visit to MOD Hebrides this month, the UK’s largest weapons test range, Minister for Defence Readiness and Industry Luke Pollard signed an agreement with QinetiQ for the first design stage of a multimillion-pound investment to develop the site for testing hypersonic missiles and other advanced technologies.
QinetiQ operates MOD Hebrides and 15 other sites under the Long Term Partnering Agreement (LTPA), a 25-year contract that provides the MOD with test, trials, training and evaluation services. The range has hosted trials of the DragonFire high-power laser and, more recently, finalists in the MOD’s low-cost deep-strike missile competition.
Pollard said, “We know that limited access to test and evaluation facilities have been holding back smaller businesses and new entrants from working with defence. By working hand-in-hand with QinetiQ, we are unlocking British innovation by developing, testing and delivering military capabilities for the UK and our allies at speed.”
QinetiQ group CEO Steve Wadey said, “Turning ideas into trusted frontline capability faster than our adversaries is what delivers military advantage and we’ve got to go faster to stay ahead.
“Project Safari will transform how the UK approves new technologies, creating a world-leading test and evaluation enterprise that helps government, industry and regulators work together to accelerate the delivery of military capability at the pace demanded by modern warfare.”
Project Safari supports a Strategic Defence Review commitment to increase defense spending with SMEs by £2.5 billion (US$3.3 billion) a year by summer 2028. It builds on the UK’s Defence Investment Plan, backed by £298 billion (US$393 billion) of defense funding over the next four years.
At the site, Pollard and Wadey held a roundtable with SMEs including Greenjets and Cambridge Aerospace, and the minister met MGI Engineering, an Oxfordshire firm developing low-cost long-range weapons for Ukraine. QinetiQ is separately preparing MOD Hebrides for a live flight demonstration of a hypersonic target, able to fly above Mach 5, planned for 2027.
