The MOD Defence Investment Plan is bringing a significant number of new programmes forward, particularly in unmanned systems across air, land and maritime domains. Early-stage concepts and prototypes tend to progress quickly but momentum often slows once those designs need to be translated into repeatable, supportable builds.
At that point, detail starts to have a material impact on delivery. Test strategy, component selection, layout, and how a product will be manufactured and maintained over time all become factors that are difficult to retrofit if they haven’t been considered early enough.
A more deliberate approach to design for manufacture and test helps reduce iteration later and provides a clearer path into stable production. Typical issues such as; limited test access, hard-to-source components, layouts poorly suited to efficient assembly, are each manageable in isolation, but collectively they affect yield, build time and long-term support. Programmes that address these considerations before they reach the manufacturing stage tend to move into production with fewer delays and less rework.
The broader industry conversation is moving in the same direction. The Subcon 2026 conference programme includes a panel session titled “Upscaling Capacity, Resilient Defence for 21st Century Threats,” hosted by ADS, bringing together voices from across the supply chain, SMEs, mid-tiers and primes to examine how industry scales to meet the demands of modern defence programmes in the wake of the Strategic Defence Review. It’s a sign of how central manufacturing readiness has become to the defence agenda.
We’ll be at Subcon 2026 at the NEC Birmingham on 3–4 June if you’d like to continue the conversation in person.