In modern warfare, the battlefield is all around us
In a world where a keystroke can plunge a city into darkness or poison its water supply, the threat of war is no longer confined to trenches and tanks. From satellites to cyberattacks, nations today must fight on both physical and virtual fronts.
The nature of war is changing. How adversaries attack – from the weapons and technology they use to the tactics they deploy – is evolving at a rapid pace. War is no longer about who has the most weapons or soldiers. Digitalisation has transformed the battlefield, and with new technologies enemies are now ‘smarter’ than ever before.
In a world of accelerating threats, innovation is becoming the first line of defence — essential to protecting people, businesses, and troops, and ultimately saving lives.
To help the UK and its allies meet this challenge, Roke is a vital mission partner. For almost 70 years we have created innovations that have kept troops and the general public safe.
Now our team of scientists, veterans, engineers, and intelligence professionals are not just aiming to imagine the future of warfare, national resilience, and public safety, but build it.
We move fast, solving today’s most pressing security challenges, like drones, quantum and AI, while shaping the battlefield of tomorrow.
The UK’s 2025 Strategic Defence Review (SDR) sets out a bold vision: establishing a warfighting force ready and able to deter, fight, and win in a world being reshaped by warfare’s changing character. Realising this vision requires more than policy; it requires trusted mission partners capable of moving at pace and embedding with the Armed Forces to deliver sovereign, interoperable solutions. It requires Roke.
Ensuring troops can defend against threats, quickly
At the heart of the SDR’s vision is a modernisation project led by Roke called ZODIAC. It’s the UK Army’s flagship programme to integrate and digitalise its intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance capabilities.
In short, it enables the Army to gather data from various sources quickly and automate intelligent processes, enhancing the Army’s ability to understand threats, decide the best course of action and act swiftly.
ZODIAC has already shown off its capabilities during a recent warfighting exercise with the UK, US and allies, and due to the success of the exercise it made the UK the US Army’s first digitally interoperable partner – which effectively means the two allies can quickly share intelligence together to act decisively.
These war development exercises show the importance of a trusted mission partner and the ability to innovate at pace on the battlefield. And it’s not a capability that’s years away from action – it’s already delivering now.
Going forward, exercises like this will be central to closing the gap between emerging threats and the capabilities allied forces need.
It accelerates prototyping and realistic trials, ensuring new concepts are tested and proven before wider rollout. Readiness is underpinned by a strong and resilient defence industrial base. It ensures the UK can respond quickly, at scale and with credibility.
Defending the economy in the age of quantum
In modern warfare, it’s not just soldiers on the frontline that have to worry – it’s now an everyday national security threat.
Adversaries could hack the business you work for or aim to cripple transport infrastructure. And, with the age of quantum computing just around the corner this threat is multiplied, meaning that war becomes a very real threat to the economy.
Roke is already working with allied forces and businesses to ensure they are ready for the quantum hacker. And while it may seem an issue that’s not yet tangible, it’s a very real threat right now.
In 2025, enemy groups are hacking sensitive data that modern computers can’t decrypt – with the aim of sitting on it and waiting, potentially years, until quantum computing is advanced enough to decrypt this treasure trove of information, that could include state secrets, sensitive corporate details or even personal data from members of the public.
It’s exactly this kind of threat that shows why we’re in a race to out-innovate the enemy, and why we must move rapidly to ensure the public, businesses and troops are protected from current and future threats.
Roke sits at the heart of this, and its work reflects the core aims of the 2025 Strategic Defence Review, from backing NATO and building sovereign capability to protecting data and driving home-grown innovation that keeps the UK safe and ready.
To find out more, click the buttons below to watch our film ‘Innovating, Faster Than The Speed of Threat’ or contact us.
