UK speeds Middle East support via early industry talks

The Ministry of Defence says it is speeding up military support to the Middle East by engaging defence companies earlier and more openly, in an approach it credits with cutting delays on export licences and supply of critical components, the Ministry of Defence has said.

The department points to the Defence Industrial Joint Council, alongside a newly formed Early Market Engagement team within the National Armaments Director Group, as central to the effort, which it says supports a wider Defence Industrial Strategy commitment to give suppliers clearer and earlier signals of what the military needs. Through structured engagement, including what it calls Strategic Industry Roundtables, the Ministry of Defence says it has moved beyond traditional procurement towards earlier conversations with suppliers, bringing industry in before requirements are fully defined so that Defence can understand what is available, test feasibility and shape delivery options more quickly.

The most concrete result the department offers concerns export licensing. Industry feedback, it says, identified barriers in export approvals, prompting accelerated government-to-government mechanisms and closer coordination with the Export Control Joint Unit, and as a result 37 of 47 export licences have been expedited, many significantly faster than standard timelines, helping priority capabilities reach partners more quickly.

Nathan Hinchliffe, Head of Market Engagement at the National Armaments Director Group, said early and continuous engagement allowed the department to “adapt to rapidly evolving requirements, understand what is feasible, and speed up capability”. By bringing industry into the conversation earlier and broadening participation, he said, Defence was creating “a more partnership-based approach that is already helping delivery happen faster and unlocking tangible results”.

The Ministry of Defence says the approach is widening participation beyond the established primes to bring in small and medium-sized enterprises, academia and non-traditional suppliers, and that the demands of the Middle East have also exposed structural pressures in the supply chain, including shortages of critical raw materials and long lead times for key components. In response, the National Armaments Director Group is developing what it calls Category Strategies to improve access to constrained areas including sensors, rocket motors and energetics, the propellants and explosive fills that go into missiles and munitions, coordinated through a Readiness and Resilience Working Group spanning the department and industry.