Advanced Materials defence companies in the UK

Develops quiet, safe electric propulsion systems and jet engines for aircraft including drones, air taxis, and regional aircraft to accelerate sustainable aviation.

Aspen 212

A 212mm ducted fan propulsion unit producing 5 kg static thrust at 500g weight, achieving 93% noise reduction and 45% greater efficiency than an open propeller of the same diameter.

Sycamore 160

A compact 160mm ducted fan engine for fixed-wing sub-25kg UAVs producing 6 kg thrust at 792g, designed for 26 m/s cruise speed with 75% noise reduction.

Hemlock

Ultra-high-speed ducted fan engine designed for fast fixed-wing drone applications, capable of flight speeds up to 125 m/s while maintaining low acoustic signature.

Runs a distributed network of precision factories powered by MasonOS, its proprietary software platform, manufacturing high-precision components for aerospace, defence and critical industries.

Designs memory-safe semiconductors with post-quantum cryptography for securing servers, edge devices and critical infrastructure against both current and quantum-era threats.

Developer of modular military aircraft systems featuring common core fuselage with interchangeable components for training and operational roles. Creates advanced jet trainers, basic trainers, and light attack variants with digital engineering and reconfigurable avionics.

AI quoting platform for manufacturers, extracting materials and pricing inputs directly from CAD files and drawings. Selected by UK Digital Catapult and National Composites Centre for the Defence Testbed Accelerator to make defence Technical Data Packs securely discoverable across distributed additive manufacturing supply chains.

Caithness-based engineering firm designing rugged lithium-ion battery systems for the global defence industry, with 20+ years supplying the military. Key products include the BB2590 smart battery and 6T lithium-ion vehicle battery.

UK specialist in energetic materials, pyrotechnic mechanisms and blast mitigation. Designs and manufactures cable cutters, actuators, gas generators and rocket motors used in defence applications including ejector seats, parachute deployment and breacher grenades developed with Dstl.

UK's leading compound semiconductor development and fabrication company, manufacturing advanced devices for defence, communications, and energy applications.

GaN RF MMICs

Monolithic microwave integrated circuits for radar and secure communications, enabling low noise amplifiers, high power amplifiers, and medium power amplifiers for defence and satellite systems.

MEMS Sensors and Actuators

Custom MEMS devices including accelerometers and microfabricated vapour cells for atomic clocks and magnetometers, with over 50 different device types manufactured across aerospace, defence, and space exploration.

UK radiation detection and shielding manufacturer, co-developer with AWE of the GMS595 gamma dose-rate monitor — the most sensitive gamma monitor available, cutting CBRN response time from two minutes to two seconds.

UK radiation and bio-detection technology company providing CBRN detection, handheld RIIDs, UAV radiation monitoring and security products for defence and homeland security users.

D5 RIID

High-accuracy ruggedized handheld radioisotope identification device for detecting, locating and identifying radioactive sources in security and defence operations.

D3S ID

Wearable radiation detector and identifier designed for rapid detection and identification of radioactive threats in the field.

AARM UAV Radiation Monitor

Autonomous airborne radiation monitoring solution for surveying larger areas and supporting emergency response or CBRN missions.

Designs and manufactures bespoke lithium-ion batteries and charging systems for military platforms, EOD robots, unmanned systems and defence prime contractors across NATO.

MGI Engineering's defence division applying Formula 1 rapid prototyping and lightweight composite expertise to autonomous platforms. Builds one-way effectors, heavy-lift UAVs, and the SkyShark drone that first flew in July 2025.

UK survivability technology company manufacturing personal armour, ballistic protection, platform survivability systems, composite armour and military vehicle integration solutions.

Personal Armour

Body armour plates, ballistic helmets, bomb disposal suits and tactical shields for military and security personnel.

Platform Survivability

Applique armour, semi-structural armour, spall liners, military seating and survivability pods for protected vehicle platforms.

Vehicle Systems

Vehicle integration, upgrades, through-life support and spares for protected mobility and defence vehicle programmes.

UK combat engineering company building armoured vehicle attachments, minefield breaching equipment, route-proving systems and robotics for battlefield mobility and survivability.

Minefield Breaching Mission Payload

RCV-Pioneer payload for remote and autonomous minefield breaching, reducing soldier exposure during combat engineering operations.

RCV-Pioneer

Robotic combat engineering platform and payload family designed for dangerous battlefield mobility and obstacle clearance tasks.

Interchangeable Combat Engineering Equipment

Armoured vehicle attachments for breaching minefields, clearing explosive ordnance, obstacle work, recovery and route proving.

Stirling-based SME producing lightweight, ballistic and blast-rated modular building blocks made from 100% recycled polypropylene. Awarded a £238,000 DASA contract with the UK MoD for force protection and vehicle checkpoint infrastructure.

Raptor Photonics designs and manufactures specialist CCD, CMOS, SWIR and VIS-SWIR camera systems for surveillance, space, scientific and industrial OEM applications.

Eagle 47-10

Deep-cooled back-illuminated CCD camera for ultra-low-light and long-exposure imaging.

Hawk 800

Compact rugged CMOS camera for low-light electro-optical platforms.

Scanna MSC develops portable security X-ray systems and mailroom screening equipment for counter-terrorism, law-enforcement, defence and EOD threat-detection applications.

UK military vehicle specialist designing high-mobility off-road platforms, special forces vehicles, recovery systems and autonomous vehicle concepts for defence users.

HMT

High Mobility Transport vehicle family for special operations, weapons carriage, patrol, logistics and high-mobility defence roles.

ATMP

All Terrain Mobility Platform for tactical load carriage, support and autonomous/electric vehicle development concepts.

HMT ACC

Armoured closed-cab HMT variant for protected high-mobility operations in demanding military environments.

Swansea University spin-out manufacturing life-like whole-body trauma training simulators for military combat medic and MERT training. Models are built from 3D CT and MRI imaging and replace animal and cadaveric training materials.

Recovery and recycling technology for aerospace composite waste, reducing defence supply chain dependency on virgin materials. NIF-backed.