UK Defense Competition Calls for Autonomous Tech To Strengthen Military Capabilities

• The Ministry of Defence is funding a competition to find new battlefield solutions.
• The competition is looking for deployable prototypes in autonomous tech that can be manufactured within a year.
• Government and defense leaders previously warned that the U.K. and U.S. must rapidly embrace AI or risk falling behind.

The Defense and Security Accelerator (DASA) has launched the next phase of its competition, calling for proposals involving autonomous navigation systems and advanced repair solutions.

As the U.K. reevaluates its outdated systems, concerns are growing across the West that slow innovation with emerging technologies could make a gap for more agile adversaries.

U.K. Defense Innovation Competition

The new phase of DASA’s competition is seeking cost-competitive proposals designed to be scalable within approximately twelve months.

Funded by the Ministry of Defence (MOD), Phase Two of the Themed Competition Innovation in Support of Operations introduces five new challenge areas:

• Drone technologies
• 155mm artillery barrel repair and reconditioning
• Autonomous navigation systems for uncrewed aerial systems (UAS) and uncrewed surface vessels
• Seeker technologies
• UAS detection solutions

According to DASA, the competition aims to deliver solutions that strengthen the U.K.’s military advantage while ensuring they can be scaled and deployed faster than rival nations.

The MOD is particularly interested in technologies that have reached Technology Readiness Level 6 —meaning they are in prototype form and can demonstrate functionality in relevant environments.

Britain’s Push for Military AI

In January, the U.K. Defence Committee emphasized that the MOD must fully embrace AI’s transformative impact on warfare, citing Ukraine’s effective use of the technology in active conflict.

The Committee’s report acknowledged the U.K.’s “natural strengths” in AI development but warned the defense sector remains underdeveloped.

“AI in defense is here to stay – the UK must move fast to avoid falling behind,” said Emma Lewell-Buck MP, Chair of the Sub-Committee on Developing AI Capacity and Expertise in U.K. Defence.

“The use of AI in Ukraine shows that it offers serious military advantage on the battlefield. As AI becomes more widespread and sophisticated, it will transform defense—from the back office to the front line,” she added.

The MOD echoed this urgency in a November statement , declaring a “duty to make the best use of AI technologies to address threats to our national security and that of our allies.”

Concerns Over U.S. Readiness

As AI continues to reshape modern warfare, experts have also voiced concerns that the U.S. risks falling behind.

Raj M. Shah, Managing Partner of Shield Capital, and Christopher M. Kirchhoff, a key contributor to the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit, warned in a New York Times op-ed that the U.S. military is “not ready for the new era of warfare.”

“…the Pentagon still overwhelmingly spends its dollars on legacy weapons systems,” Shah and Kirchhoff wrote, adding that it relies on an “outmoded and costly technical production system” to procure tanks, ships, and aircraft carriers.

Efforts to modernize defense systems across both the U.K. and the U.S. underscore a growing recognition: upgrading to meet the demands of the digital age is no longer optional but essential.