Flagship programmes. Front-line operations.
Thousands of hours of systems, safety, design and assurance work on the platforms that matter most, from the submarine fleet to strategic space. Most of it cannot be named; all of it was delivered to the standards the duty holder demanded.
Three programmes we can name. The rest are described by platform, not by name — ask us in person.
Subsea
Combat systems, optronics, propulsion plant and the next generation of electric propulsion.
Integrated full electric propulsion and energy storage
We lead Phase 1 of a government propulsion technology programme for the submarine delivery and procurement authorities: a horizon scan of conventional and future technologies able to replace pressurised water reactors, large diesels and gas turbines, scored on safety, reliability, availability, maintainability, survivability and performance.
Programme detail
Common combat sub-system for the SSN and SSBN fleet
Requirements management, safety assurance and safety management for a common combat sub-system built on virtualised servers, intended for in-service attack and ballistic-missile submarines and their successors. We set up the requirements structure and the safety baseline for a system that had to serve three classes at once.
Programme detail
Submarine optronics mast
Updated system definition, architecture and interface control documents for an optronics mast, then a software and firmware safety assessment to show the system met SIL 2 against Def Stan 00-55 and the firmware met DO-254. Baseline safety cases and functional, occupational, environmental and common-cause analysis took the hazards to ALARP.
Programme detail
Nuclear propulsion plant — shore test facility
Failure analysis review for the secondary steam, feed and hydraulic systems of a ballistic-missile submarine reactor plant at its shore test facility: checking that fault-tree models represented the plant correctly, deriving base-event failure rates from the incident database, and writing the operator procedures and dry-run trials for a core de-fuel and removal.
Programme detail
Land
Armoured platforms from concept safety targets to live-fire trials.
Next-generation main battle tank and autonomous vehicle concept
Safety targets derived from first principles using R2P2, risk graphs built from battlefield mission and fleet data, and platform-level hazards across functional, operational, occupational and particular risks. Derived requirements from fault trees and FMEDAs were presented in a structured modular safety case for the preliminary design review.
Programme detail
Complex weapons and C4ISTAR platform turret
Safety Design Authority on a very large programme to develop and deliver a highly complex turret, while coordinating the reliability, maintainability and safety teams as Head of Engineering Integrity. Detailed safety analysis and requirements shaped the system architecture, physical design, electrical and electronic design (including FPGAs, PLCs and ICs) and software development across the whole lifecycle.
Programme detail
Infantry fighting vehicle capability sustainment and manned live fire
Safety case and procedures for live fire trials on a capability sustainment programme, as part of the live fire team reporting to the trials and range safety managers. Separately, a detailed hazard log for manned live-firing trials of a turret interface programme, independently assessed by the defence ordnance safety authority, enabled crewed firing trials in the UK.
Programme detail
Air
Air traffic management at national scale, guided weapons on operations, and fast-jet integrations.
Nationwide military air traffic management transition
Safety management and safety engineering, cradle to grave, for the replacement of air traffic systems across 77 military aerodromes, airfields and ranges without disrupting flying. Sixteen technical services, each with many sub-system combinations per site, including the first hub-and-satellite ATM system of its kind, were carried through Part 1 to Part 4 safety cases and hand-over to the Front Line Command.
Programme detail
Independent safety assessment for a Front Line Command’s ATM estate
Independent review of the safety cases and safety data for navigation, surveillance and radio communication systems nearing end of life, with advice on their safety status, life extension and the requirements for their replacements. Alongside it, the architecture and data-integrity assessment of the national onward-routed radar data network linking civil and military radar heads.
Programme detail
Guided weapons on the UK Apache
A goal-based modular safety argument showing that legacy guided weapons and munitions were safe and serviceable for use, built on design integrity, definition, hazard log, certification, configuration and quality evidence. Certificates of design were maintained through in-service updates, and an in-flight trajectory deviation was narrowed to its root cause with six-degree-of-freedom modelling.
Programme detail
Helicopter-launched anti-surface guided weapon
Systems safety management for the all-up round and its integration equipment, in line with the delivery team’s through-life management plan: live firing trials, then the two ordnance safety review clearances needed for ship storage and embarkation and for initial operating capability with the helicopter. The complete electronic hazard log for the programme was ours.
Programme detail
Fast-jet and transport aircraft integrations
An interim safety case for a more powerful engine and an integrated weapons upgrade on a V/STOL fighter; the safety case for a defensive aids suite fitted to a reconnaissance aircraft under urgent operational requirement; a safety plan and analysis for a buddy-to-buddy air-to-air refuelling pod on a fast jet; and static code analysis of a transport aircraft’s mission system software to DO-178B Level A.
Programme detail
Space
Re-entry systems, launch integration and flight readiness with a US launch authority.
Re-entry aeroshell system
System safety for an aeroshell through manufacture, transportation and flight trials against US military system safety requirements: COSHH assessments for working with thermal protection materials, review of structural safety factors, ancillary equipment compliance, drawing and document approval, and safe working practices written into the test procedures.
Programme detail
Space-based experimental payload and launch system readiness
Safe integration of a UK experimental payload onto a US launch platform, working directly with the launch authority: a suite of operating procedures for unpacking, sub-assembly fitting, connection to the rocket module and final arming and disarming, including electronic release circuit tests. Separately, a process to assess the flightworthiness of a development launcher and a safe-state inspection of a disused launch system.
Programme detail
Cross-domain
Systems that serve every environment, and the same disciplines applied outside defence.
Identification friend-or-foe system across three environments
The system-level safety case for a successor identification friend-or-foe system fitted to air, land and sea platforms, using an electronic, modular safety case that integrated compliance matrices, goal-structured argument and the requirements database — one of the first of its kind. Fault trees, occupational and health hazard analysis and a SIL 2 compliance matrix mapped to DO-178B fed a hazard log for every variant.
Programme detail
Air-launched munitions electronic safety cases
Electronic safety cases for all operational guided and unguided bomb variants and an air-to-air missile family used by the RAF, structured to JSP 520 with definitions to Def Stan 00-56 and compliance to Def Stan 07-85. Splitting the generic and specific aspects of each variant kept the argument compact and the evidence gathering manageable.
Programme detail
European airspace and NATO air command safety arguments
A goal-based safety argument for reduced vertical separation in European airspace, built on research into best safety practice across aerospace, defence, rail, medical, nuclear, space, offshore and automotive, modelling accidents from aircraft system failure, human error, air traffic control failure and weather. Then the safety management plan and consequence and event-tree analysis for a NATO air command and control system.
Programme detail
Functional safety in automotive and rail
Setting up an organisational infrastructure and culture for functional safety at a vehicle systems company, then independent assessments of vehicle systems against ISO 26262 ASIL C and ISO 13849 PL e for a powertrain controls supplier. New hybrid rail business was won with the rail standards body, a transport innovation centre and the infrastructure owner, leading to a hybrid electric concept locomotive developed with partners.
Programme detail
Much of our defence work arrives through the frameworks and portals below. We are also working towards direct contracts with the National Armaments Director group and the Front Line Commands, and we collaborate with industry primes whose own frameworks open further routes.
Aurora Engineering Partnership
Down-selected to the Aurora Engineering Delivery Partner provider network, through which we supply engineering services to DE&S and the Submarine Delivery Agency under standard Aurora terms.
Futures Lab
A proven Futures Lab lead organisation, bringing academic and manufacturing partners together on research and concept programmes for the defence customer, from TRL 1 upwards.
Defence Sourcing Portal (DSP)
Registered on the MOD’s Defence Sourcing Portal, which hosts all of the Ministry of Defence’s advertised requirements, where we respond directly to tenders and to subcontracting opportunities advertised by strategic suppliers.
Dstl R-Cloud (Research Cloud)
A supplier on R-Cloud, the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory’s dynamic gateway for contracting science and technology research, through which research tasks in defence and security are placed with us.
Want the version with names?
Under the right agreement we can talk through the programmes behind these cards.