Welsh SMEs need to be ready to take advantage of opportunities around investment in the UK’s defence and security.
Speaking ahead of the expected publication of the UK Government’s long-awaited defence investment plan (Dip), Phil Jones, Chief Executive of Business in Focus, said SMEs from across sectors would play a key role in the supply chain for defence, security and resilience contracts and cannot afford to delay taking action.
He challenged budget holders within SMEs and also in primes, in government departments and local authorities to “make an exceptional decision within your budget to ensure that you are contributing to this moment in time”.
The threats to national security are such that organisations across the public sector as well as businesses of all sizes in the private sector need to come together as “pieces of the defence, security, and resilience jigsaw puzzle”, Phil said.
The UK Government is expected to publish the Dip as early as Tuesday, ahead of a Nato summit in Turkey next month. Reports suggest the settlement could be up to £15 billion, with the plan focusing on drones rather than replacing the Royal Navy’s destroyers and frigates.
Business in Focus, in partnership with ADS Group, headline sponsor General Dynamics Land Systems and the Welsh Government, is set to host a flagship defence supply chain event in September.
Defence Security Resilience Cymru, being held at ICC Wales in Newport on September 3 and 4, will bring together more than 2,000 attendees and more than 60 exhibitors and aims to connect buyers, suppliers and innovators across defence, security and national resilience.
“What we're trying to do at DSRC in September is to ensure that we make a really bold statement that says: ‘business is ready’,” said Phil.
Phil was speaking on the first episode of the Defence Security Resilience Cymru podcast series, produced in association with Business News Wales, which also heard from Air Marshal Andrew Turner, Former Deputy Chief of the Air Force and now CEO of Saibre Capital.
Andrew told the podcast:
“I don't think we've been in a more dangerous time, and this is mostly because we're sleepwalking into many of the threats. We're thoroughly underprepared.”
But he said that whilst government was “violently oscillating” in terms of its plans, business was in fact ready to meet the challenge.
“The people who are ready for that race, saddled up, spurs on, those are the people that will win with an oven-ready plan for investment, jobs, growth, tax, IP, patents,” said Andrew.
Huw Thomas, BBC Wales Business Correspondent, told the podcast that businesses in Wales had ambitions to do more in the field of defence but were largely waiting to see the strategy from UK Government before deciding where to invest.
Alongside anchor companies including Airbus, General Dynamics and BAE, Wales has a strong supply chain of SMEs which want to expand and scale up, he said.
Hear more on the Defence Security Resilience Cymru podcast here:
Find out more about Defence Security Resilience Cymru, being held at ICC Wales in Newport on September 3 and 4 2026, here: https://www.dsr.cymru/
