New intervention meets demand for defence supply chain solutions

The accelerator programme is delivered by Digital Catapult as part of the Made Smarter | Digital Supply Chain Hub alongside the Ministry Of Defence, other major defence manufacturers, and cutting-edge UK-based small businesses. The programme will convene capabilities, with support from the National Composites Centre (NCC) and the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC), to unlock new opportunities for the MOD and its partners to securely manage and share manufacturing design data.  

As it stands, the UK defence sector faces increasingly long lead times to secure military and defence assets, and fragmented data systems which constrain equipment availability, disrupt supply chains and threaten the UK’s defence and security capabilities. To solve these challenges, the MOD is looking to identify innovative ways to create a federated digital inventory of manufacturing information which will give authorised partners a single and secure view of essential technical data, enabling distributed 3D printing of defence components. 

The five participating startups will work on two separate challenges to validate and trial new solutions that explorethe application of deep tech to achieve secure, connected, and responsive defence manufacturing. Dataline Labs, CamyPro and TECHNIA will work to address the Technical Data Packs (TDP)-Digital Inventory Connectors challenge, developing software solutions to securely extract and standardise metadata from Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) systems. Vistory Group and Quaisr will tackle the Federated Digital Inventory challenge to consider the best way to develop a unified, permissioned platform to view and share technical data across the entire supply chain. 

Both challenges will bolster industrial supply chain resilience, building on Digital Catapult’s success in this space to date, which has seen 37 Digital Supply Chain Hub projects delivered, and 135 engagements with manufacturing and technology SMEs, which represents a year-on-year increase of 44. Technology companies on the Digital Supply Chain Hub have also secured over £6 million in funding since participating on the programme, reflecting the value of the intervention in enabling companies to commercialise their solutions and scale.  

Annie Iakovaki, Head of Industrial Supply Chains at Digital Catapult, said: “One area of defence innovation that requires immediate attention is the supply chain, responsible for the delivery of assets, information and people that underpin the success of the UK defence sector. Interventions like this accelerator programme demonstrate the value of convening capabilities across the sector, and bridging the gap between industry, startups and government to better solve some of the most pressing challenges in the space, and to unlock new opportunities that maintain the UK’s position as a leading player in defence innovation and success.” 

Richard Hamber, Advanced Manufacturing Lead in Defence Support, National Armaments Director Group said: “This is an exciting moment in the evolution of the ideas stated in the MOD’s recently issued Advanced Manufacturing Strategy. The testbed provides the basis to bring to life some of those ideas so we can see the art of the possible and understand the next steps to make them a reality. The Catapults have provided energy, pace and buckets of expertise to get us this far very quickly whilst adding another five Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SME) into the Defence sphere, consistent with wider Governmental objectives, and the Defence Industrial Strategy.”

The participating companies are:  

CamyPro 

CamyPro enables fast, accurate online quoting for manufacturing businesses. It does this by giving its customers the opportunity to use their own code and supercharge it with CamyPro’s open-core quoting platform, combining automation, AI, and deep expertise in manufacturability to streamline design-to-production workflows. Find out more by visiting the CamyPro website 

Dataline Labs 

Dataline Labs provides intelligent data transformation solutions that turn complex, fragmented data into instant business value. Its platform, DataConnect Pro, automates the extraction, standardisation, and delivery of data from multiple sources, enabling organisations to build solutions, generate APIs, and deploy AI-powered natural language search, all in minutes without requiring extensive development resources. Founded in the UK, Dataline Labs specialises in solving data challenges for enterprises dealing with large, disparate datasets. Its clients achieve rapid productivity gains through its low-code approach that makes complex data accessible to both technical and non-technical users alike. Find out more by visiting the Dataline Labs website 

Quaisr 

Quaisr is a VC backed, Imperial College London and Alan Turing Institute spin-off with existing clients in defence/aerospace, pharmaceuticals, mining and fast moving consumer goods.  The Quaisr offering is a digital connectivity platform that scales simulation-backed AI workflows to mission-critical operational deployments, helping engineers to solve pressing problems in design, monitoring, optimisation and control. Find out more by visiting the Quaisr website 

TECHNIA 

TECHNIA is a global leader in Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) and systems integration, helping organisations across industries to innovate, collaborate, and operate more efficiently. Combining deep domain expertise with enterprise-grade technology, TECHNIA delivers solutions that connect people, processes, and data seamlessly across digital ecosystems. Its integration frameworks and middleware platforms enable secure, scalable, and traceable data exchange across PLM, ERP, and manufacturing systems. With a strong presence in the UK and a track record of delivering complex, secure integration projects worldwide, TECHNIA empowers defence and industrial partners to achieve interoperability, digital resilience, and sustainable innovation through connected engineering environments.Find out more by visiting the TECHNIA website 

Vistory Group 

Vistory Group is a technology company specialising in secure digital manufacturing and data sovereignty solutions for defence and industrial partners. Its flagship product, MainChain, is a patented, private blockchain platform that provides trusted, traceable, and encrypted workflows for distributed manufacturing and digital inventory management. Tested and validated with NATO, Safran, and the French Ministry of Armed Forces, MainChain enables “print anything, anywhere, anytime” capability with complete IP protection and verifiable proof of production. Headquartered in the UK with international operations, Vistory is focused on delivering secure-by-design digital infrastructure that supports sovereign manufacturing, interoperability, and resilience across global supply chains. Find out more by visiting the Vistory Group website