Whether you agree with it or not, recent geopolitical events have meant the defencetech industry is booming.
Focused on applying existing tech like cybersecurity and AI to military operations, it’s a sector that has been attracting a lot of interest, and a lot of investment. In fact, according to UK Tech News, the UK allocated £61.4B to defencetech investment in 2025 alone.
Why Are Countries Investing More In Defence Tech?
The past few years have shown the devastating effect that war can have. With the Ukraine-Russia war, as well as the Israel-Hamas war, it’s clear that wars are no longer only fought on the battleground, but in the cyber-sphere too.
With this has come a whole new wave of innovation, focused on protecting security, minimising casualties and strengthening defence.
And with technologies like drones, AI, cybersecurity, autonomous vehicles and advanced GPS all now able to be applied to defence, it’s no surprise that VCs and governments are pouring capital into the sector.
But what does 2026 hold for defencetech? To find out, we asked the experts. Here’s what they had to say…
Our Experts
- Matthew Wragg, CEO of Gattaca Plc
- Ash Alexander-Cooper OBE, VP Europe, EMEA and APAC at Dedrone by Axon
- Rick Harlow, CEO of NovaSpark Energy
- Idan Levy, CEO and Co-Founder of Skana Robotics
- Loris Petro, Marketing Manager at Kratom Earth
- Paul DeMott, CTO of Helium SEO
- Saj Huq, CCO at Plexal
- Mike Kappes, Co-founder and CTO of NEXT Semiconductor Technologies
- Saachin Bhatt, Founder & COO of BRDGE.ai
- Richard Ellis, Managing Director of ATG Access
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Matthew Wragg, CEO of Gattaca Plc
“The UK’s defence sector is entering a new era of investment and innovation. Alongside other European nations, the UK Government has committed to significantly increase defence spending by 2030, with billions already earmarked for cyber resilience, autonomous systems, and advanced R&D. These programmes are not just about military capability they are fuelling a surge in demand for highly skilled tech talent.
“At Matchtech, we are already seeing rising recruitment needs across cyber security, AI-driven autonomous platforms, and specialist R&D roles. Contractors with niche expertise are in particularly high demand, enjoying greater mobility as they parachute into transformation projects and help guide less experienced teams. This is a clear signal: defence is no longer defined by boots on the ground, but by brains behind the code.
“For the global tech community, the UK’s defence push is a case study in how government backed investment accelerates frontier technologies. The spill over into civilian aerospace, AI, and advanced manufacturing will be significant. Britain’s bet on defence-tech is not just about national security, it’s about shaping the future of defence innovation.”
Ash Alexander-Cooper OBE, VP Europe, EMEA and APAC at Dedrone by Axon
“The last year has shown how easily hostile drones can be transported and then activated deep inside a country, used to disrupt critical infrastructure or military installations. This will push governments to replace isolated air walls with fully networked Counter Unmanned Aerial System (CUAS) systems that stretch across national territory and operate through shared intelligence layers.
“European nations will move first, establishing regional CUAS coalitions that exchange real-time signatures, telemetry and incident data, with NATO and key Indo-Pacific partners beginning to follow the same model. This transition marks a fundamental move in how states think about airspace sovereignty. Defence will depend on distributed detection networks rather than geographic boundaries, and the speed at which nations adapt will shape their resilience for the decade ahead.”
Rick Harlow, CEO of NovaSpark Energy
“DefenseTech in 2026 will be defined less by any single platform and more by how well we connect autonomy, energy, and data at the edge. Forces are shifting from a few exquisite, centralized assets to networks of smaller, attritable and increasingly autonomous systems in the air, on land, and at sea. That shift only works if we solve two hard problems at once: contested logistics and resilient communications.
“I expect to see rapid growth in mobile, self-contained energy nodes that can generate their own power and fuel, such as hydrogen, JP8 or kerosene, from local resources to keep uncrewed systems, sensors, and operators online without relying on fixed bases or fragile fuel convoys. In parallel, AI will quietly move from buzzword to baseline, embedded in targeting support, maintenance, spectrum management and decision support. The winners in DefenseTech won’t just build smarter hardware; they will design systems that assume disruption, operate in degraded conditions, and still give commanders trusted information and power when everything else is breaking.”
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Idan Levy, CEO and Co-Founder of Skana Robotics
“Through 2026, the industry will reflect a phase of active restructuring: integrating hybrid fleets, operationalizing autonomy step by step, and embedding resilience as a core design principle rather than a future aspiration.
“Rather than relying solely on singular, high-value platforms, maritime forces are restructuring around hybrid fleet deployment and orchestration. The goal is not replacement, but multiplication: extending reach, persistence, and operational tempo through distributed autonomous systems working alongside crewed assets.
“Manned–unmanned teaming will continue its gradual move from conceptual frameworks into working operational layers. Progress will be gradual, guided by human decision-makers who retain authority over mission direction and risk. Autonomy will expand around them – not replace them.
“At the same time, software-defined maritime systems will advance, and more platforms will be designed for continuous updates to mission logic, coordination behavior, and autonomy levels through software; allowing forces to adapt faster than traditional procurement cycles allow.
“The defence tech industry is in the midst of a profound transition, one shaped less by a single dramatic breakthrough and more by a growing imbalance in the operational reality. Threats are spreading faster than fleets can scale, forcing navies to rebalance through sophisticated yet immediately deployable systems. By 2026, this transition will be increasingly visible in how resilience is being rebuilt at sea.”
Loris Petro, Marketing Manager at Kratom Earth
“If we look at defence technology in 2026 through a lens similar to predictive logic, the measurable evolution of capability and deployment speed suggests that military technology will increasingly focus on systems that objectively demonstrate value through quantifiable accuracy rather than theoretical potential.
“The most substantial area of development is Micro Automation and Compact Sensor Intelligence, as the military seeks technology that can scale without significantly increasing equipment costs. Sensor grids made of units below forty dollars are replacing older single-point surveillance systems, increasing the surveilled area by more than three hundred percent while maintaining low power consumption for weeks of operational use.
“As a result, Autonomous Platforms are becoming focused on narrower mission sets. The military prefers dependable single-mission drones or ground units over multifunction platforms that fail due to complexity. Cyber Operations already demonstrate this, with breach simulations running hundreds of controlled intrusions every hour, revealing weak points far faster than annual audits and reshaping readiness timelines.
“All major developments are tied to accountability through performance data, pushing technology toward self-validating, real-time diagnostics that reduce human interference and compress decision-making cycles from minutes to seconds. By 2026, military technology advances will be measured not by market potential but by stability, repeatability and demonstrable tactical value within strict budget and resource constraints.”
Paul DeMott, CTO of Helium SEO
“AI will shift toward operational decision support in threat detection, logistics optimisation and predictive maintenance. Defence organisations will prioritise confidence and clarity in AI outputs, requiring systems to justify recommendations before action is taken in high-stakes environments.
“Cybersecurity will shift to breach-assumed models where systems presume adversaries have already gained access. Continuous authentication, segmentation and zero-trust architectures will become standard. Supply chain security will dominate procurement decisions as commercial hardware and software become more tightly linked to national security.
“The most valuable developments will emerge at the intersection of commercial and defence technology. Traditional defence contractors cannot match the speed of commercial innovation in AI, cloud infrastructure and autonomy. Dual-use technologies and deeper collaboration between defence and technology companies will grow, though regulatory and security-clearance challenges will continue to create friction. The future of defence tech will depend on how institutions balance commercial innovation speed with defence-grade security requirements.”
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Saj Huq, CCO at Plexal
“A lot of the right intent showed up in the UK defence ecosystem in 2025, including through the Strategic Defence Review. In 2026, that intent must turn into execution to drive meaningful industrial change.
“What matters most is whether that intent translates into sustained demand and genuine commercial opportunities for a growing community of dual-use and defence-focused tech companies. Without this, private capital will remain cautious, regardless of innovation quality or market narrative.
“Large demand signals such as the Digital Targeting Web, and the shift toward software-defined, AI-enabled and interoperable systems underpinned by sovereign cloud, are reshaping how capability is procured and delivered.
“If system-level demand moves beyond pilots, 2026 becomes the year revenue and investment flow with confidence. That will benefit resilient companies with clear routes to scale while exposing weaker models built around one-off contracts and innovation theatre.”
Mike Kappes, Co-founder and CTO of NEXT Semiconductor Technologies
“The future of defence tech in 2026 will center on unmanned semi-autonomous vehicles, a globally interconnected satellite network like the Golden Dome, portable nuclear power solutions, more precise AI-enabled reconnaissance and missile guidance systems, and a shift in personnel training toward logistics, supply chain management and homeland responsibilities such as immigration enforcement.”
Saachin Bhatt, Founder & COO of BRDGE.ai
“The defence industry’s AI revolution faces an inconvenient physics problem in 2026: you cannot run directed energy weapons, battlefield AI and autonomous swarms on diesel generators.
“While investors pour billions into algorithmic sophistication, they overlook the operational bottleneck that will determine battlefield viability: energy architecture. AI-enabled systems require exponentially more power than current logistics can deliver into contested environments.
“In 2026, the Pentagon’s additive manufacturing investments will accelerate the creation of mobile power infrastructure essential for AI deployment. Ukraine proved that sophistication means nothing if energy supply collapses.
“The market will invert. AI-heavy defence tech startups will hit operational limits, while companies solving compact energy storage, thermal management at scale and energy-efficient computing will become mission-critical instead of infrastructure-adjacent.
“By late 2026, defence procurement will introduce a new metric: watts per capability. The algorithms are ready. The power supply is not.”
Richard Ellis, Managing Director of ATG Access
“As defence technology increases, there is a growing risk that physical security investment fails to keep pace. Next year, the defence sector must consider physical security more seriously to ensure that defence assets and infrastructure are protected against evolving and modern physical threats, which are becoming more advanced – the protection of critical sites needs to keep up.
“Modern hostile vehicle mitigation solutions must be built for contemporary risks. Defence sites increasingly require equipment capable of delivering higher stopping power, protection against layered attacks and to operate reliably in complex, high-profile environments. These systems must not only perform, but also integrate seamlessly into operational infrastructure without disrupting day-to-day activity.
“We are also seeing a shift toward connected security ecosystems, where automation, embedded sensors and predictive analytics work alongside physical assets to enhance situational awareness and response.
“Ultimately, defence estates must treat physical security as a core capability. Resilience will depend not just on innovation in defence technology, but on investing in smarter, future-proof protection for the infrastructure that supports it.”
For any questions, comments or features, please contact us directly.
