Engineering is our passion.
Aerospace Design Ltd, trading as ADL UK, is an established British defence SME specialising in high-integrity systems engineering. Small by design, senior by experience, and independent by principle.
A British defence SME, built on first principles.
ADL is an established British defence SME specialising in high-integrity systems engineering. We have supported DE&S, Front Line Commands and defence primes across the land, air, sea, space and weapons domains, underpinning major operations and flagship programmes. ADL is also a proven Futures Lab lead organisation, collaborating with academia and manufacturing entities.
For over a decade we have engineered high-integrity, safety- and security-critical systems for the Ministry of Defence, including DE&S and the Submarine Delivery Agency, with particular depth in subsea platform systems, complex digital control and instrumentation, and integrated full electric propulsion.
Backed by over 150 years of combined defence engineering experience across air, land, sea and space, and a network of specialist partners including naval engineers, we offer independent technical assurance for safety- and security-significant digital systems: the kind a duty holder, a regulator or a design authority can rely on.
We are a micro-SME by headcount and deliberately so. The people who write the bid are the people who do the work, and every engineer on the team leads their own discipline.
Established processes don’t fit every challenge.
Recognising that established processes do not fit every development challenge, we apply first-principles judgement, experience and innovative thinking to reach the right outcome, without compromising on safety, compliance or assurance.
- First principles before precedentWe start from the physics, the hazard and the user need, then choose the process that fits, rather than forcing the problem into a template.
- The whole lifecycle, not one phaseConcept, Assessment, Demonstration, Manufacture, In-Service and Disposal. We have worked every stage of CADMID, so we design for the ones that come later.
- Independent, and accountable for itOur value to a customer is an opinion they can trust. We say what the evidence supports, and we put our name to it.
Led by engineers who have delivered.
Eight senior specialists, each the lead for their discipline, drawn from defence programmes across every domain we serve.
Mital Lakhani
Director of Engineering Operations
Specialism Engineering Leadership & Management; Systems & Functional Safety Engineering; Weapons, Tanks, Subsea Platform & ATM Systems expertise
Meena Bhagani
Director of Business & Finance
Graeme Slaymaker
Lead Safety Management & Mechanical Engineer
Specialism Safety Management (SMS, ASEMS, POSMS); Mechanical Engineering
Eamon Dillon
Lead Test & Requirements Engineer
Specialism Systems Engineering; Test, Evaluation & Requirements Engineering; Communications, RADAR, EW and C4I Systems
Antony Bulmer
Lead Systems Design Engineer
Specialism Systems Design; Network and Long-Range Surveillance / Comms Engineering
Craig Thomas
Lead Aircraft Platform Systems & Weapons Integration Safety Engineer
Specialism Rotary Wing Aircraft Platform Systems; Maintenance and Logistics; Weapons Integration & Safety Engineering
Martin Murphy
Lead Quality Management, Quality Assurance & Process Engineer
Specialism Quality Management, Quality Assurance & Process Engineering; Supply Chain Management
Vaida Maksims
Associate Head of Commercial & Legal
Our engineers hold professional memberships including the Royal Aeronautical Society, the Safety and Reliability Society and the IET. Our engineers hold SC and DV clearances.
Three of our specialists come from the armed forces community, two from the Royal Air Force and one from the Royal Navy. ADL is a signatory to the Armed Forces Covenant and holds the MOD Employer Recognition Scheme Bronze Award.
Assured before we are appointed.
The registrations a prime’s supply-chain team looks for, held and maintained.
Every route a defence customer already uses.
Engage us through the frameworks below, directly, or through the industry primes we collaborate with.
- Aurora Engineering PartnershipEngineering Delivery Partner provider network for DE&S and the Submarine Delivery Agency.
- Futures LabProven lead organisation for defence innovation tasks with academia and manufacturing partners.
- Defence Sourcing PortalRegistered supplier for MOD opportunities published through the DSP.
- Dstl R-CloudResearch Cloud supplier for science and technology tasks.
- Direct and via primesDirect contracts with the National Armaments Director group and the Front Line Commands, and subcontracts through industry primes.
Our collaborators
Academic, manufacturing and engineering partners we work alongside. Names and logos to follow.
Want to know more about how we work?
A short conversation is the quickest way to find out whether we fit your programme.