UKDI (UK Defence Innovation)

UKDI was launched in July 2025 as part of the MOD reforms, it ties together the previously separate MOD organisations: Defence Innovation Unit (DIU), Command Innovation Hubs, and DE&S Future Capability Innovation (FCI). 

Each has separate organisation has similar aspirations, UKDI aims to create a central point of reference under the National Armaments Director (NAD) group. The UKDI aims to deliver its key mission of accelerating the UK’s innovation capabilities over a two-year principle through main functional areas: 

1. Find, grow, and encourage: UK businesses to focus on developing products and services for Defence. Setting conditions for wider UK and international collaboration
2. Prove and exploit: Accelerate novel capabilities, technology, and ways of working into Operational use. Funds and delivers innovation projects.
3. Strategy and Assurance: Setting policy and strategy for innovation 

UKDI aspires to overcome the slow contracting and risk averse processes currently shaping the MOD. Both these are considered key blockers preventing the MOD from keeping up with innovation in the commercial sector. It aims to overcome these barriers by acting as a single point of entry for IMPs, paying particular attention to SME’s and by supporting WarDev experimentation so military users can test capabilities before full-scale procurement. Once established it has aspirations to create competitive selection models, in a Dragons Den type scenario with a 3-2-1 down selection process to ensure effective investment. 

The model has a strong focus on building UK sovereign capabilities, with an initial £400 million annual budget that will be invested into UK based IMPs to help them grow and in turn grow UK economy.

 As Defence is a risk averse industry, UKDI aims to manage the increased risk of rapid innovation and encouragement of SMEs with smaller profit margins. It aims to use its Dragons Den style approach and proposed WarDev ‘try before you buy’ culture to help manage the risk of investing in new technologies.