United Kingdom creating defense innovation cell.

• Author: Tadjdeh, Yasmin
• Position: Global Defense

* The United Kingdom is investing more than $1 billion to fund cutting edge defense technology, said the country's secretary of state for defense.

"At a time of growing threats--nuclear, conventional, state-based or terrorist--the United Kingdom is stepping up with bigger and stronger defense," said Michael Fallon. "We are increasing our defense budget. We are increasing the size and power of our armed forces so that we can do more to protect our security. And in so doing, we aim to become an even stronger partner of our most steadfast ally, the United States."

The United Kingdom will put $1.5 billion into an innovation fund that will help it secure an operational advantage in the future, he said during a December speech at the Atlantic Council, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank.

Taking a page out of the United States' book, the country wants to create its own version of the Defense Innovation Unit - Experimental, he said. U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter established DIUx in 2015 to better tap into the work being done in Silicon Valley.

"We will be launching our Emerging Technology and Innovation Analysis Cell to help identify game changing technologies. We are setting up a new center to pool the intelligence of the best brains in British business, academia and the public sector," Fallon said.

The U.K. government--currently being led by the Conservative Party--has pledged to spend 2 percent of its GDP on defense. Over the next decade, it intends to allocate more than $265 billion to new equipment, he said.

The country wants to work more closely with the United States on defense innovation, he noted. The United Kingdom plans to tighten links between the two nations and work together on emerging technology...