The Ministry of Defence is a ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for implementing the defence policy set by the government and serves as the headquarters of the British Armed Forces.
The Royal Signals and Radar Establishment (RSRE) was a scientific research establishment within the Ministry of Defence (MoD) of the United Kingdom. It was located primarily at Malvern in Worcestershire, England. The RSRE motto was Ubique Sentio.
Porton Down is a science and defence technology campus in Wiltshire, England, just north-east of the village of Porton, near Salisbury. It is home to two British government facilities: a site of the Ministry of Defence's Defence Science and Technology Laboratory – known for over 100 years as one of the UK's most secretive and controversial military research facilities, occupying 7,000 acres (2,800 ha) – and a site of the UK Health Security Agency. Since 2018, part of the campus has housed Porton Science Park, which is owned and operated by Wiltshire Council and has private sector companies in the health, life science and defence and security sectors.
The Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA) was a part of the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) between 1995 and 2 July 2001. At the time it was the United Kingdom's largest science and technology organisation. It was regarded by its official history as 'a jewel in the crown' of both government and industry.
The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority is a UK government research organisation responsible for the development of fusion energy. It is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ).
QinetiQ is a multinational defence technology company headquartered in Farnborough, Hampshire. It operates primarily in the defence, security and critical national infrastructure markets and run testing and evaluation capabilities for air, land, sea and target systems.
The Defence Research Agency (DRA) was an executive agency of the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) from April 1991 until April 1995. At the time, the DRA was Britain's largest science and technology organisation. In April 1995, the DRA was combined with five other MOD establishments to form the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency.
Fort Halstead was a research site of the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), an executive agency of the UK Ministry of Defence. It is situated on the crest of the Kentish North Downs, overlooking the town of Sevenoaks, southeast of London. Originally constructed in 1892 as part of a ring of fortresses around London, Fort Halstead was to be staffed by volunteers in the event of a crisis.
A trading fund is an executive agency, government department or often simply a part of a department, that enables the department to handle its own revenues and expenses separately from overall government finances and more like a business, as opposed to having to obtain funding from the government's legislature and feeding income back into its treasury. A Hong Kong parliamentary study of trading funds in the UK and Hong Kong describes their nature and purpose as follows:
A trading fund is a financial and accounting framework established by law to enable a government department, or part of a department, to adopt certain accounting and management practices common in the private sector. [The fund] operates on a self-financing basis and does not need to regularly seek funding from the legislature to finance its daily operations after its establishment... the intention [is that such] an institutional change would provide the appropriate flexibility in resource management and nurture a new working culture to improve services in terms of both quality and cost-effectiveness.
The Safety-Critical Systems Club (SCSC) is a professional association in the United Kingdom. It aims to share knowledge about safety-critical systems, including current and emerging practices in safety engineering, software engineering, and product and process safety standards.
The United Kingdom Space Agency (UKSA) is an executive agency of the Government of the United Kingdom, responsible for the United Kingdom's civil space programme. It was established on 1 April 2010 to replace the British National Space Centre (BNSC) and took over responsibility for government policy and key budgets for space exploration; it represents the United Kingdom in all negotiations on space matters. The Agency "[brings] together all UK civil space activities under one single management". It is based at the former BNSC headquarters in Swindon, Wiltshire.
The Military Vehicles and Engineering Establishment (MVEE) was a British defence research unit on Chobham Lane, Chertsey in Surrey. It was responsible for many innovations in armoured vehicle design, including ceramic Chobham armour.
MOD Corsham is a Ministry of Defence establishment located between the towns of Corsham and Box in Wiltshire, England. Since 1998 the site's principal activities concern British Armed Forces and MOD information and communications technology and information warfare.
Dame Frances Carolyn Saunders is a British scientist and former civil servant. She was the chief executive of Dstl between August 2007 and March 2012. Prior to this Saunders was a policy officer at the Office of Science and Technology and research scientist into liquid crystal devices at the Royal Signals and Radar Establishment. Saunders was the president of the Institute of Physics from 2013 to 2015.
Jonathan Henry Lyle CB is a British engineer and former senior civil servant. He served as chief executive of Dstl between March 2012 and September 2017.
The International Technology Alliance in Distributed Analytics and Information Sciences (DAIS-ITA) was a research program initiated by the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) and the US Army Research Laboratory (ARL), in September 2016 and remained active for 5 years until September 2021. It was led by IBM Research in the U.S. and IBM Hursley in the UK. DAIS ITA is the second International Technology Alliance started by the two countries, succeeding the previous ten year alliance NIS-ITA, which was of similar nature.
Penelope Claire Endersby is a British researcher and academic specialising in armour and explosives. She was appointed chief executive of the Met Office in December 2018. Prior to that, she led cyber and information systems at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory.
The Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy, often known as the Integrated Review, and titled as Global Britain in a Competitive Age, was a review carried out by the British government led by Boris Johnson into the foreign, defence, security and international development policies of the United Kingdom. Described by Johnson as "the largest review of its kind since the Cold War", the review was published on 16 March 2021.
The Spirit Mosquito was an unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) technology demonstrator in development by Team Mosquito in the United Kingdom. In January 2021, the aircraft was chosen as a technology demonstrator for the Royal Air Force's Lightweight Affordable Novel Combat Aircraft (LANCA) concept which was first conceptualised in 2015 by the RAF Rapid Capabilities Office.
DragonFire is a British laser directed-energy weapon (LDEW). It was first unveiled to the public as a technology demonstrator in 2017 at the Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) conference in London and is being developed by UK DragonFire, a collaboration consisting of MBDA UK, Leonardo UK, QinetiQ and the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl). A production version is expected to enter service in 2027 onboard Royal Navy ships.
