General Dynamics [GD] United Kingdom Limited announced recently that it has launched a pioneering innovation center for Britain’s knowledge-based industries.
The EDGE UK will enable rapid testing of new advances in technology by the Ministry of Defence, Britain’s leading universities, and high-tech small and medium size companies (SME). The EDGE provides a collaborative environment for new equipment and software to be joined to existing defense communications and information technology systems, facilitating speedy assessment and refinement of emerging capabilities for the armed forces and security services.
The EDGE UK was launched at the Northern Defence Industries (NDI) conference in Leeds Feb. 29. Andrew Browne, vice president C4I (UK) of General Dynamics UK, said: “EDGE(tm) UK will allow us to take best-of-breed science and technology innovations rapidly into fielded capability. This will provide our customers with a competitive edge. To do this, we need a physical and virtual infrastructure that will enable us to work closely, and collaborate, with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), academia and customers.”
General Dynamics developed the original EDGE initiative in the United States, where it provides a physical and virtual environment for collaboration projects among industry, academia and the U.S. government.
In the United States, The EDGE develops and tests new and emerging technologies that could be worn and carried by warfighters. It allowed General Dynamics to identify a sniper detection gap, find a potential solution and move it out to the warfighter quickly (Defense Daily, Oct. 6). The concept has been successful enough to expand into other areas General Dynamics is working on.
The initiative has been adapted for the United Kingdom by General Dynamics UK, which nurtures SMEs, in accordance with the U.K.’s Defence Innovation Strategy, which calls for a “new environment for innovation within the defence supply chain” and notes that innovation is essentially “the successful generation and exploitation of new or, where appropriate, novel applications of existing technology.”
As well as helping innovative SMEs bring new capabilities to market, the EDGE UK facility will further develop the partnership-based concept of the U.K’s unique Joint Systems and Joint Networks Integration Bodies (JSIB and JNIB). The Joint Integration Bodies, pioneered by General Dynamics UK and the MoD in delivering the United Kingdom’s flagship Bowman communications program, bring together industry and the MoD to integrate key networks and systems into a coherent whole.