Defence in brief: UK opens East Regional Defence and Security Cluster

On 5th June 2025, the UK’s latest Regional Defence and Security Cluster (RDSC) was officially launched at Lockheed Martin UK’s advanced manufacturing facility in Bedfordshire. This initiative is a collaboration between the Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA), industry participants, academic institutions, local authorities, and Small, Medium-sized Enterprises.

The East Regional Defence and Security Cluster aims to drive innovation, foster collaboration, and stimulate economic growth within the defence and security sectors. It will serve as a catalyst for the development and advancement of technologies to address the UK’s security needs in the Eastern regions of the UK. This includes Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, and Bedfordshire. 

The key benefits of the Cluster include the following: 

• Encourages innovation through research and development.
• Fosters relationships and partnerships.
• Facilitates knowledge transfer between academia, industry, and government.
• Leverages expertise from SMEs and emerging tech firms.
• Provides a route for non-traditional suppliers to enter the Defence market.
• Grows a talent pipeline for the future workforce.
• Strengthens supply chains and export opportunities as well as the MoD’s understanding of the supply chains available in the UK. 

Lockheed Martin and Airbus are already members of the cluster, as are Blue Bear, Space East and a number of universities such as the University of Hertfordshire, and the Anglia Ruskin University.

Calibre comment

The UK has a rich and vibrant defence ecosystem which has survived several decades of lean defence budgets and constrained funding. This means that it has a wealth of innovative companies relying on fairly irregular contracts and increasingly private capital to ensure that they can survive year-to-year. The Labour Government has made it clear that defence is seen as a driver for economic growth throughout the UK and will be working to maximise the latent potential through initiatives like the Regional Defence and Security Cluster. 

By Sam Cranny-Evans, published on 12th June, 2025.