Innovating today for a safer tomorrow

Ultra has been innovating for over 100 years, and we continue to build innovation into all of our products, processes and culture.

We are very proud of our heritage. We have been solving our customers’ most complex problems, pioneering the innovative defence technologies that help make the world a safer place.

Programmes using cutting edge Ultra technology solutions
300+
Ultra workforce in engineering function
40%
Technology investment since 2016
£900m

We understand that in an unpredictable world R&D is essential to innovation not only to stay ahead of new threats from global adversaries but also to create new jobs and prosperity. That’s why Ultra Labs operates as a global network of diverse thinkers, engineers and scientists. Our team are experts in areas including artificial intelligence, machine learning, big data and cloud computing, and advanced data visualisation.

Total spend on R&D
£150m
Order book
£1.3bn
Number of engineers
Over 1,400

We call our approach to developing the technologies and solutions of tomorrow 'mission-focused innovation'. What do we mean? It is about starting with our customers’ most challenging problems and working backwards to the technologies and solutions that will solve them.

To achieve this we need to understand what our customers really need, better than ever. That includes both their present needs, and then going one step further to understand their potential future needs. Only then can we build the cutting edge technology for a safer tomorrow.

Solving our customer needs

The increasingly rapid pace of emerging technology and associated threats presents a great challenge to our customers. We define these challenges across four main areas:

Combatting near peer threats

Priorities are shifting away from protecting against unknown threats and counter-insurgency towards near-peer military and grey threats from technologically advanced, well funded and highly coordinated national state adversaries.

Countering asymmetric threats

Protecting against a broad and unpredictable spectrum of military, paramilitary and information operations targeting weakness in government, armed forces or supporting infrastructure. DARPA refer to this as ‘MOSAIC’ defence: fast, scalable, adaptive joint multi-domain threat monitoring and response.

Doing more with less

The changing threat environment and the need to reinvest in key areas means that RTD&E (Research, Development, Testing and Evaluation) spend will be protected in coming years. However, future solutions will not only need to be advanced and resilient, but also economical, sustainable and efficient.

Accelerating detect to deploy

Rapidly emerging threats require rapid action to outpace adversaries. In future conflicts, major decisions will need to be made within hours, minutes, or potentially seconds. Enabling these decisions means presenting the right data, in the right way, to the right people.

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