Operationalising DefTech: Defence campaign week launch

Launching techUK’s Defence Campaign Week, Operationalising DefTech, techUK is pleased to welcome John Cunningham, the Director of UK Defence Innovation within the Ministry of Defence to brief members on MOD’s evolving approach to new technologies, alongside the co-founder of Anduril Industries Christian Brose, and Sara Sharkey from Prolinx.

The Strategic Defence Review and Industrial Strategy both set out bold ambitions for how MOD will develop, procure and deploy Defence Technology (DefTech). Last year’s Defence campaign week examined the ways in which technology will transform defence strategically, tactically, and logistically. Looking beyond the theory, this year we will focus on how to make that transformation a reality: to operationalise DefTech.

Following the discussion, we will hear from SME members of techUK presenting on products that have the power to accelerate change.

John Cunningham is Director of UK Defence Innovation within the MOD. Prior to joining the Innovation Team, he was Head of UK Complex Weapons Portfolio including roles as a Senior Responsible Owner for multiple Defence Weapons Programmes and the UK industrial portfolios. In this post he was responsible for managing and delivering the UK Armed Forces guided weapon capability, managing R&D pull-through to exploit innovation, ensuring UK maintains the industrial skill-sets to deliver operational advantage, delivering the benefits of a UK sovereign portfolio, establishing the Directed Energy Weapons Programme (a game-changer programme), and across Defence ensuring military capability is protected.

Christian Brose is President and Chief Strategy Officer at Anduril Industries. He is responsible for leading the company’s core growth-related functions, including corporate strategy, business development, communications, and international business. He is the author of The Kill Chain: Defending America in the Future of High-Tech Warfare. Before joined Anduril in 2018, he served as senior policy adviser to Senator John McCain from 2009-2014, supporting his work on the Senate Armed Services Committee, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Brig (Rtd) Sara Sharkey CBE MSc BSc CENg MIET served in the British Army for 30 years. She spearheaded the transformation of Army information services to agile software development practices and shared data services and was subsequently appointed to lead the development of shared Defence cloud and application services. In June 2024 Sara joined Prolinx, an SME assured cloud services technology company as Strategy and Operations Director.