London is the beating heart of global finance. Its banks, insurers and investors command influence far beyond our shores; its centers of research generate ideas of world-class quality. Yet when it comes to national security, which to a great extent depends on space, the city has largely remained on the sidelines. Its reservoirs of capital are deep, but its attitude towards defense is hesitant. This has to change.
Conflict today plays out in the dark: satellites are disrupted, networks corrupted, economies unsettled, populations manipulated. Russia’s disabling of Viasat’s satellite service in 2022 was a stark warning that critical space infrastructure — the constellations and networks that carry our communications, commerce and security — is in the proverbial firing line. Hacker groups, too, can bring large organizations to a standstill, doing enormous reputational harm in the process, in hours. These assaults are difficult and indeed impossible to see in many cases, but do the kind of damage that can’t be ignored. Private investment is necessary.
The British government, to its credit, recognizes this danger and has shown vision in the shape of two documents which set the scene and chart a course forward. But no one looking honestly at the public coffers can believe that state funding alone will deliver the speed and scale of innovation Britain needs in space, as well as AI, quantum or cyber. It’s no use wishing things were otherwise: We are where we are. The incumbents must be sensitive to the immediate concerns of the electorate: energy bills, food prices, shoplifting, hospital waiting lists. With the Treasury stretched and threats proliferating, where do we turn? This is where the financial sector comes in.
There are sound reasons why British investors have been hesitant to invest in defense. Startups in the field are often de-banked at the very moment they’re coming to maturity. ESG rules have discouraged lenders. The “deeper” defense tech companies, such as those working in space, require patient, sustained, generous investment, which cuts against the M.O. of funds demanding quick returns. The result is that promising dual-use firms are stifled at home or forced to go abroad. And in the meantime, authoritarian states are moving fast, pouring funds into dual-use tech and preparing to go on the offensive in space and elsewhere. If we in Britain want to secure our freedom, we must mobilize our financial strength.
Let’s not forget that there’s a massive commercial opportunity here. Global defense spending rose above $2.7 trillion last year. Spacetech, quantum computing, data center construction — these badly need capital and are ripe for explosive growth. This is about strategic investment in the critical infrastructure of tomorrow. Even if you set aside any notions of national duty or security, you’ll still have to accept that this is good for business.
Of course, national duty isn’t irrelevant, and that’s one reason why a group of about 30 of us — senior figures across defense, finance and industry — came together recently to discuss how we can use our financial muscle to bolster our defence. The result was a report, Resilience: Mobilising the UK Financial Services to Advance the United Kingdom’s Interests. Our recommendations included setting up a Defence Growth Fund to scale companies from lab to orbit, working alongside the National Wealth Fund; new co-investment models to give investors confidence that backing dual-use firms is safe and necessary and public–private partnerships refreshed to focus not only on procurement but on space, cyber and AI collaboration.
The government will remain the backbone of national defense, but our view is that resilience in the contested domains can’t be built by the state alone. It requires partnership between ministers, financiers, industry and innovators. Acting together, we can make up the lost ground and build a world-leading defense sector. In the first week of September, at DSEI London, these worlds were under one roof, and the sense of urgency could not have been greater. For us in Britain and our allies, our adversaries are circling, assessing our strengths and weaknesses and probing at every chance they get. The temperature is rising.
But we have the intelligence, the energy, the scientific and technological prowess and the financial power to respond. What we need in Britain is to join them together. Security and prosperity are not two tracks that run in parallel. If we can marry the creativity of our people with the capital of the city, we will not only secure our defense and space infrastructure but protect our freedoms and our future.
Air Marshal Andrew Turner CB CBE, former Deputy Commander of the Royal Air Force and a key figure in the creation of UK Space Command, is CEO of Space4Sight and sits on industry advisory boards, including at NewSpace Capital.
Mark Wheatley is the founder of Delano Wheatley Consulting, a multi-stream advisory business which guides clients on matters from strategy to sensitive senior recruitment, and a sister company DWC Technology. He also serves as a local politician in the City of London.
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