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Speakers at the October 7 City Quantum & AI Summit said the UK’s main obstacles to deploying AI and quantum technologies in defense are institutional risk appetite and the pace of capital, rather than procurement rules alone. Admiral Sir Tony Radakin said a business case for a defense program worth more than £200 million takes over 1,000 days on average to complete; British Business Bank Chair Stephen Welton cited a £100 million commitment to OQC as a signal to private investors.
Speakers at the sixth City Quantum & AI Summit in London said that institutional caution and slow investment, rather than procurement rules alone, are holding back the UK’s ability to put AI and quantum technologies into military use and scale domestic deep-tech companies. Former Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Sir Tony Radakin said completing a business case for a UK defense program worth more than £200 million takes over 1,000 days on average, while British Business Bank Chair Stephen Welton pointed to public investment intended to encourage private capital.
The summit was held at Mansion House on October 7 under the theme “Connections in Chaos” and was organized by Redcliffe Advisory. Its defense panel, “Defence: Safety and Security in Troubled Times,” brought together Radakin with representatives from Helsing, Thales, Multiverse Computing and Delta.g. The discussion focused on the gap between fast-moving technology and the institutions that buy and deploy it.
Radakin contrasted UK procurement for domestic forces with the purchasing approach used to support Ukraine. He said the Ministry of Defence’s Task Force Kindred had enabled equipment purchases for Ukrainian forces, while a business case for a UK program above £200 million took more than 1,000 days on average to complete before a contract was signed. The summit report says he attributed the difference less to the people involved than to the degree of permission to take operational and financial risks.
Helsing UK Managing Director Ned Baker said removing rules would not solve the problem. He described the obstacle as “a cultural thing”: people need to feel empowered to take risks and act. Thales consultant Jeanette van Halteren agreed, saying a Ministry of Defence initiative called ASGARD had, in her view, shifted back toward a programmatic approach. In a separate evening keynote, Welton said the British Business Bank’s £100 million commitment to OQC’s £260 million Series C was intended to show private UK investors that British capital can anchor British deep-tech firms.
Why Slow Decisions Matter for Defense
The speakers’ concern is that a long path from development to procurement could leave the armed forces slower to adopt technologies that change quickly. Baker described the Ukraine battlefield iteration cycle as operating in hours and days rather than years and decades, with systems adjusted in response to countermeasures and user feedback. That account was presented as a panel observation, not as an independently measured comparison across all military programs.
The funding discussion points to a related challenge: UK companies may need substantial capital to develop and scale technologies, while public investment alone may not meet that need. Welton framed the bank’s OQC commitment as a way to encourage private investors to participate. Taken together, the sessions focused on whether institutions can make timely decisions and whether domestic firms can access the capital to supply the capabilities the UK seeks.
Panelists also described sovereignty as a national capability developed with trusted allies, rather than isolation from them. That framing matters for defense and technology policy because it connects domestic industrial capacity with cooperation, while leaving open how the UK should balance those aims in specific programs.
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The Summit’s Defense and Funding Sessions
The report covers two sessions at the sixth City Quantum & AI Summit: an afternoon defense panel chaired by Radakin and an evening keynote by Welton. Their subjects were distinct but connected: the defense panel addressed adoption and procurement, while the keynote addressed capital for British innovation.
Radakin cited Ukraine support as an example of a purchasing route he said had enabled equipment to be sourced for Ukrainian forces. He contrasted that with domestic procurement and raised the possibility of making faster processes a default, while retaining exceptions for complex capabilities such as nuclear submarines, fast jets and major munitions. The panel also discussed cyber and gray-zone threats affecting industrial suppliers to defense, according to the summit report.
Baker described military AI, rapid battlefield iteration and the arrival of private capital as changes affecting defense technology development. The summit report identifies Helsing as one company applying private investment to military AI and rapid research and development; this is the speaker’s account of the market, not a full assessment of the sector.
“If anything was over 200 million, then just on average, just to finish off the business case would take over 1,000 days.”
— Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, former Chief of the Defence Staff
How Far Reform Has Reached
The summit report does not provide independent data on how long defense business cases take across different program types, or explain the method behind Radakin’s 1,000-day average. It also does not establish whether procurement times have changed since his example or how many programs are affected.
The speakers’ views on institutional culture and investment are assessments shared during summit sessions. The report does not quantify the effect of risk appetite on deployment, state whether proposed procurement changes have been adopted, or detail what conditions the British Business Bank attached to its OQC commitment. The future scale of private investment prompted by that commitment is also not established.
Although panelists discussed sovereignty and trusted allies, the report does not set out a common definition or policy framework for those terms. It remains unclear how any faster procurement approach would be applied across different technologies and programs while accounting for their varying safety and security requirements.
The Next Test for Faster Adoption
The summit report describes the challenges and examples raised by speakers, but does not announce a new procurement policy, timetable or follow-up commitment. The next test will be whether government buyers can translate calls for greater risk tolerance into changes in decision-making, and whether those changes shorten the route from technology development to contracts for the armed forces.
For the financing question, the bank’s OQC commitment provides a concrete example of public backing, but the report gives no timeline or target for further investments. Future announcements about private funding, company growth and defense deployments would help show whether the approach is drawing in additional capital and bringing technologies into service.
Key Questions
What did speakers identify as the main bottleneck?
Speakers pointed to institutional risk appetite and slow decision-making, alongside difficulty mobilizing capital. Baker said the issue was cultural rather than simply a matter of removing procurement rules.
What did Radakin say about defense procurement times?
Radakin said completing the business case for a UK defense program worth more than £200 million takes over 1,000 days on average, before a contract is signed. The summit report does not provide the underlying dataset or methodology.
What is the British Business Bank’s OQC commitment?
Welton said the bank committed £100 million to OQC’s £260 million Series C. He described the investment as a signal intended to encourage private UK investors to back British deep-tech companies.
Did the summit announce procurement reforms?
The report describes speakers’ views and examples, but does not announce a new procurement policy or implementation timetable. Whether the proposed cultural or procedural changes will be adopted remains unclear.
Source: thequantuminsider.com
