Mentioned:QinetiQUK Ministry of Defence
The UK Ministry of Defence and QinetiQ launched Project Safari to streamline approvals and provide single-point access to military testing facilities for small and medium-sized enterprises and new entrants. The program supports the Strategic Defence Review goal to increase annual defense spending with SMEs by £2.5 billion by summer 2028.
What's happening
- Project Safari creates a single point of access to UK military test facilities and streamlines approval processes to help SMEs and new entrants access testing infrastructure.
- The program aims to reduce multiple layers of bureaucratic approval that have prevented smaller firms from testing equipment in realistic conditions.
- QinetiQ will modernize testing infrastructure for digital environments and reduce decision-making delays across government, industry, regulators and technology developers.
Why it matters
- Access to credible test facilities is a critical supply-chain barrier for SMEs seeking to enter or scale within defense markets; removing friction accelerates qualified new suppliers.
- The Strategic Defence Review targets £2.5 billion in additional annual SME spending by summer 2028, making supplier onboarding speed a program-level constraint.
- Faster testing cycles shorten the time between technology development and military deployment, raising production-readiness across emerging defense sectors including autonomous systems and directed-energy weapons.
- MOD Hebrides investment agreement with QinetiQ enables testing of hypersonic missiles and advanced capabilities, expanding test capacity for high-priority programs.
Going deeper
- Project Safari coordinates testing access across specialist facilities and expertise held by government, QinetiQ and external partners rather than consolidating infrastructure under single ownership.
- The program explicitly targets barriers in autonomous systems, electronic warfare and manufacturing sectors where smaller firms have historically faced approval delays.
- MOD Hebrides multimillion-pound development will support testing of hypersonic missiles, directed-energy weapons and autonomous systems alongside conventional test ranges.
The fine print
- Project Safari amount is undisclosed; only MOD Hebrides investment is described as multimillion-pound and in design stage.
- Hebrides funding covers the first design stage, meaning detailed capital requirements and delivery timeline for modernization work remain to be determined.
- The £2.5 billion SME spending target is annual run-rate by summer 2028, not cumulative spend over the period.
Source: defence-industry.eu · Oct 10, 2026 · Drafted with Claude, reviewed by Industrial Base Alpha.
