Smaller technology businesses seeking to work with the defence sector are set to receive a single route into the United Kingdom’s specialised testing facilities under a new programme launched by the Ministry of Defence and QinetiQ.
Project Safari is intended to change how small and medium-sized enterprises, new market entrants and other innovators reach test and evaluation sites. The programme is designed to reduce the layers of approval that can make real-world trials difficult for firms without long-established defence relationships. Its central promise is a single front door for access to sites and a smoother process for approving trial activity.
The initiative covers technologies that are difficult to assess outside specialist environments, including hypersonic systems, directed-energy equipment and autonomous capabilities. That does not mean any particular product has been accepted for service. The programme is a route for testing and evaluation, where equipment can be assessed and refined before decisions are made about deployment.
At the launch, the Defence Readiness and Industry Minister signed an agreement with QinetiQ for the first design stage of a multi-million-pound investment at MOD Hebrides. The work is intended to develop the site for testing hypersonic missiles and other advanced technologies. The announcement describes a design stage rather than a completed upgrade and does not put a precise value on the investment.
The commercial importance lies in access. Test ranges, specialist instrumentation and safety processes can be expensive and hard to navigate for a growing company. A clearer entry point may allow a firm to prove a capability without separately working through multiple approval routes. QinetiQ said the programme will bring together government, industry, regulators and technology innovators while modernising the way decisions are taken.
Representatives of Greenjets and Cambridge Aerospace took part in a roundtable on the barriers smaller firms face when accessing test and evaluation services. The minister also met MGI Engineering, an Oxfordshire small business competing in Project Brakestop. Their participation illustrates the intended audience for the programme, but it is not an award of contracts or proof that any named business will secure a future order.
The project is linked to a Strategic Defence Review ambition for defence to increase annual spending with small and medium-sized businesses by £2.5 billion by summer 2028. That is a future spending objective, not an amount already awarded through Safari. The wider Defence Investment Plan is backed by £298 billion over four years, although the launch did not allocate a defined share of that total to the new access programme.
For founders and suppliers, the immediate development is therefore procedural rather than a grant round. Project Safari offers an announced framework for reaching facilities and expertise; individual testing opportunities, contracts and procurement decisions will still depend on the relevant requirements and assessments.
The launch also makes clear that access to a range is only one element of the route to market. Firms must still show that a proposed trial is appropriate, meet safety and security requirements and satisfy the customer’s operational needs. The value of the programme will be measured by whether it turns the new route into usable trials and credible pathways to deployment.
