Colliding Worlds: Accelerating defence innovation

By Dan Pritchard, Founder, Tech South West

The need for innovation in defence is more pressing than ever. Any news channel or social feed makes that abundantly clear.

But the route to deployment of new technologies faces many hurdles. 

It’s especially true for the most raw and dynamic part of the innovation ecosystem – the realm of startups.

And that’s why Tech South West has teamed up with Babcock International and the University of Plymouth to launch the new UK Marine Autonomy Accelerator Programme 2026.

Part of our Growth Forge series, the programme is already attracting national interest – and applications – and led to Tech South West being invited to speak at this year’s Undersea Defence Technology Conference at London Excel.

I was joined by Tom Coates, Babcock’s Future Capabilities Director, Simon Tutton of Steampunk Ventures, and two founders from either end of the country Stephen Jordan (EagleRay Robotics, Edinburgh) and Francis Mobbs (Voxmar, Cornwall) to explore a shared challenge: how we move faster — not just in developing innovation, but in adopting it at scale. 

Having founders who have joined the autonomy programme alongside Babcock and Steampunk was deliberate. Are their worlds so far apart? Where better to find out then in front of a live audience.

And through the session, one thing became very clear – a genuine willingness to meet in the middle.

The panelists agreed, whilst some barriers are technical, mostly they’re structural. Different incentives, different speeds, different levels of risk tolerance. And, on top of it all, we have cultural barriers. But crucially, everyone recognises and accepts these different realities. All agreed, what’s most important is committing to spending time to properly understand each other.

And credit where it’s due, Babcock’s launch of its new SME Charter this month is a strong signal of intent. It reflects a prime actively opening its doors to startups, working to understand emerging technologies earlier, and creating more meaningful routes for collaboration. That does not mean it will be backing every startup. But it does mean Babcock will be sitting alongside founders, understanding their technologies, providing advice and guidance, and helping startups move forward. 

One moment captured it perfectly. Francis Mobbs spoke about a typical week at his early stage startup. He’s doing everything – relationship-building, investor conversations, strategy, marketing, and so on. But what he needs to be doing is “blowing things up” — testing and refining his technology over and over. Tom Coates from Babcock made the contrast clear: doing the same inside a prime rightly involves layers of governance and sign-off. That gap — between rapid experimentation and necessary control — is where collaboration either slows or accelerates progress.

The takeaway is simple, but not easy. Founders need to understand procurement and timelines. Primes need to create clearer routes for testing and iteration. Investors need to lean into the realities of defence, not sit on the sidelines; learn the landscape to find the rewards. And they are there. Government investment is ramping up. Regulations are shifting. Barriers are being chipped away; not fast enough for some, but it is underway.

And that’s what we’re building through the Growth Forge Marine Autonomy accelerator — bringing worlds together early, in a practical way, and focusing on getting things done.

To find out more and apply to the programme go to www.techsouthwest.co.uk/growthforge