21 Nov 2025

How the MoD can become a centre of digital excellence

Guest blog by Alf Frankin, Head of Public Sector EMEA at Elastic #DefTechWeek2025

Alf Frankin

Head of Public Sector EMEA, Elastic

In the face of rising geopolitical tensions, Britain – like many other countries across the world – is strengthening its armed forces.

The UK government has pledged to spend 5% of gross domestic product (GDP) on national security to meet ambitious new NATO goals. Of course, modern conflicts are not confined to physical grounds. A sophisticated cyberattack targeting critical national infrastructure, such as the electricity grid, can be more disruptive as a conventional strike, and can come without warning or detectable buildup. That’s why the Ministry of Defence is spending significant sums on cyber defence, such as a recent £1 billion investment in a new cyber warfare system and command.

But investment and innovation alone aren’t enough to deliver sustainable transformation. They must be underpinned by the right people, with the right technical and delivery skills. However, the UK is currently navigating a chronic shortage of digital skills – an issue that the University of Birmingham claims could cost the British economy £27.6 billion or 380,000 full-time jobs by the end of this decade.

To close this gap and equip Britain’s defence community with the technical capabilities it needs to protect the public in a digital-first world, the MoD must build sustainable skills pipelines and create an environment that attracts and retains top digital talent.

People are vital

When it comes to defence transformation, a dual focus on innovation and people is paramount. That starts with continuous skills development, ensuring existing and prospective employees can both learn and experiment. Practical, hands-on learning opportunities that let people test new technologies are more than important as formal training.

Equipping teams with new technologies like AI holds the key to attracting and retaining talent. Through open source collaboration, employees can contribute to developing and implementing cutting-edge defence solutions, fostering a sense of community and purpose.

By prioritising people, skills, and technology, the MoD not only strengthens its workforce but also enhances its ability to protect the nation effectively in an evolving digital landscape.

The role of AI

AI, in particular, will have a key role to play in the MoD over the next few years. In fact, UK Defence Secretary John Healey revealed to The Guardian in May that it’s his vision to make the country’s military an AI leader within NATO.

But AI goes far past autonomous systems here. It has the potential to transform everything from contract and supplier management to logistics, cyber and intelligence gathering. By automating repetitive and mundane tasks in these various areas, MoD employees can focus their time and energy on higher-value, strategic tasks that require creative thinking and human judgment.

In this scenario, AI doesn’t replace people but acts as a force multiplier. AI can enable MoD staff to excel like never before, boosting productivity across the entire ministry and, crucially, providing the public with strong defense.

Open source collaboration is essential

To reap the rewards offered by AI and other emerging technologies, the MoD must recognise that digital transformation is not an isolated undertaking. Its success depends on open collaboration and continuous skills development. When these are treated as strategic enablers, transformation initiatives deliver the best possible results.

In practice, this means adopting open source and interoperable solutions that allow large, complex organisations like the MoD to move away from legacy systems and build a modern, unified platform, bringing together search, observability, and security. This foundation enables systems that can be easily scaled, integrated, and updated for optimal operational readiness.

A platform underpinned by open source and open source methodologies not only delivers technical agility, but also accelerates learning by encouraging collaboration and knowledge sharing between engineers, analysts, developers, and non-technical teams. This cross-functional exchange builds the digital skills and confidence needed to maintain more resilient, adaptive systems, continually refined by the MoD’s own IT community.

Cultural shift required

There’s no denying that the defence industry is rapidly changing as technologies like AI change how defence teams operate. Without highly skilled IT teams and a pipeline of emerging talent, countries’ defences are weakened immeasurably.

The challenge is that, in today’s climate, the defence industry is now competing with so many other industries that also require top digital talent in order to succeed.

Action is therefore needed to make careers in defence desirable and accessible once more. That requires a cultural shift within organisations like the MoD – one where experimentation, continuous learning, flexible pathways, and direct access to Commands such as the MoD’s Cyber Command are championed. Creating an employment-market ecosystem, supported by open source, will help attract, retain, and develop the talent needed.

Operationalising DefTech campaign week 2025 #DefTechWeek2025

techUK has launched its Operationalising DefTech 2025 campaign week, highlighting how emerging technologies can strengthen defence capability and accelerate innovation across the sector. The campaign showcases member insights, practical use cases, and opportunities to collaborate on the future of defence technology.

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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.

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