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Innovating for Defence

Innovation in defence is vital to UK national security

 

NCC has worked in partnership with defence customers since its inception. A Centre of Excellence for Defence Innovation, we have an established national role in delivering cutting-edge products and technologies that address mission-critical challenges. This includes accelerating the development of advanced materials, digital engineering, process innovation and systems integration. 

Located in the UK’s largest defence cluster, we are an innovation and development partner to industry and government. We are investing in building new (open and secure) innovation capabilities across our focus areas to deliver a truly unique capability. 

In partnership with other centres in the High Value Manufacturing Catapult, we collaborate with the Ministry of Defence, defence industry primes and SMEs to create an integrated UK solution to future defence innovation. 

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Connect with our Defence Specialists at NCC to find out more about our world-leading innovation capabilities and how we can support your business.  

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Defence Focus Areas

Main focus areas for Defence across the technology and product life cycle 

Advanced materials
Hypersonics
Autonomous systems
Emerging tech

Major Programmes
Technology categories

We connect technology strategy to real-world delivery through our end-to-end engineering services.

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Materials
Product
Process
Growth initiatives

Services portfolio

Can digital tech really transform defence? Yes, and it’s already happening

For years, advanced composites—clever, high-performance materials used in everything from fighter jets to spacecraft—were the “nice-to-have” in Defence. Impressive, but also expensive.

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Our Impact

Why Ceramic Matrix Composites matter now - and what the UK must do next

The future of UK defence will be shaped by the materials we can access - and increasingly, by those we can produce ourselves. Ceramic Matrix Composites (CMCs) are becoming critical to the next wave of aerospace and hypersonic systems. They offer a step change in performance where traditional materials fall short.

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Our Impact

Applied Research & Technology Forum for UK Defence

Technology leaders showcase innovative materials & manufacturing technologies, focused on pulling fundamental innovative technology through the mid Technology Readiness Levels (TRL 4-7) as a means of showing greater application of novel research.

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Our Impact

NCC welcomes new alliance to deliver defence innovation

NCC warmly welcomes news of the alliance between the UK Ministry of Defence and High Value Manufacturing Catapult (HVM Catapult

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Our Impact

NCC hosts launch of Western Regional Defence and Security Cluster at DSEI

The Western Regional Defence and Security Cluster (WRDSC) has been formed to foster collaboration and strengthen defence capability across the South West Region.

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Our Impact

Engineering Resilience: Delivering Capability for a Volatile World

Resilient defence is no longer a matter of theory - it’s mission critical. In a world of accelerating change, we must deliver platforms designed to withstand disruption and evolve under pressure. At NCC, we engineer with this future in mind.

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Our Impact

How can Concept Design accelerate innovation in defence?

With global threats evolving rapidly, traditional 20-year defence procurement cycles are no longer sustainable. The UK's Defence Industrial Strategy Statement of Intent recognises the need for faster, more adaptive innovation processes to maintain national security and NATO leadership.

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Our Impact

Insight & Impact
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UK Large Structures Innovation Centre

Tue, 09 Dec 2025

NCC plans to establish UK’s first Large Structures Innovation Centre – a new, open-access facility enabling industry to design, develop, and de-risk next gen large structures at full industrial scale.

Scaling innovation for a renewable future

Mon, 08 Dec 2025

In aerospace, we helped scale composite wing production and build a UK supply chain from scratch. Now, we’re applying the same approach to offshore wind, writes Ffion Rodes.

Reducing defects in wind turbine blade manufacturing

Fri, 05 Dec 2025

In response to the challenge of manufacturing large structures without costly defects, NCC linked multiple advanced technologies into a robust, real-world manufacturing system.

Deep Tech partnership

Thu, 04 Dec 2025

Science Creates and NCC unite to scale world-class research into globally competitive companies, supporting the ambitions of the UK’s new Industrial Strategy.

AI in engineering: Turning promise into practice

Wed, 03 Dec 2025

AI is often described as the future of engineering. The potential is huge – but it can be difficult to find examples of it working in real manufacturing. At NCC, we’re working to bridge that gap.

Watch: AI controlled manufacturing for liquid resin infusion

Mon, 01 Dec 2025

Resin infusion is hard to control and even harder to optimise. That’s where AI could make a real difference. At NCC, we’ve created custom environments to train machine learning models on millions of infusion scenarios.

Space West Newsletter - November 2025

Thu, 27 Nov 2025

Welcome to the November edition of our Space West Newsletter. With each newsletter, we aim to share the most recent discoveries, advancements, and stories from the world of Space in the South West.

University of Bristol to develop new ‘British Library’ for the AI age

Fri, 21 Nov 2025

The new National AI Data Facility will be located next to Isambard-AI, the UK's most powerful AI supercomputer, on-site at NCC.

Feasibility funding now open 2025

Tue, 18 Nov 2025

UK businesses can now apply for a share of £2 million to explore new materials innovation through short feasibility studies - the first phase of the National Materials Innovation Programme (NMIP).