IT and improved technology played a key role in the Government’s Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) that was laid out by the Prime Minister in Parliament today.
David Cameron announced that there will be a £12bn increase in defence expenditure to £178bn over 10 years. The SDSR says that the government will use technology and better data on land, sea and air to improve its capability.
The announcements were broadly welcomed by UK tech.
James Murphy, Associate Director for Defence & Security and independent industry body techUK said: "The last SDSR failed to acknowledge the importance of information to our national security. This time, the government has clearly understood that to stay at the cutting edge, secure our national interests and to prepare for operations in the information age, different steps needed to be taken – as demonstrated by the focus on cyber and C4ISR technologies."
Amongst more traditional defence announcements, Cameron said that there would be an emerging technology and innovation analysis cell.
Murphy said: "Whilst the major platforms and the Rapid Strike brigades will get the headlines, it is vital to appreciate that they rely on information technology. Therefore, government departments must continue to invest in the underpinning ICT infrastructure, see through the transformations already underway and do so in partnership with industry."
It comes just days after Chancellor George Osborne announced that cyber security spending would reach £1.9bn a year by 2020, and that there would be a new cyber security excellence centre..
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