Date: 19 November, 2007
Baroness Taylor, UK Minister for Defence Equipment and Support announced the development of a Defence Technology Plan (DTP) on Tuesday 13 November 2007.
The DTP will take the Defence Technology Strategy forward and provide clear direction to the research and development (R&D) community, allowing industry and academia to better direct investment in defence science and technology. The DTP will set out the research programme by presenting technological roadmaps of R&D objectives.
The DTP aims to be fully up and running by late 2008. "We are taking the Defence Technology Strategy forward by developing the Defence Technology Plan,” said Baroness Taylor.
“This plan will enable transparent prioritisation and coherence across MoD's R&D programme by setting out the research programme in the form of technology roadmaps derived from key R&D objectives. It will form the basis of our national and international partnerships with academia, industry and allies."
MoD published the Defence Technology Strategy in October 2006. The DTP will be a clear plan starting with research goals based on capability requirements, showing how the goals will be met by R&D activity.
MoD is developing the plan in consultation with the wider stakeholder community. DTP will have a dynamic online format, allowing regular updates when necessary. R&D Staff include Science Innovation Technology (SIT), who manage approximately £500m of the Research budget, Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S), who manage some £2bn of project expenditure associated with Development, Equipment Capability Customer (ECC) the military 'customer' organisation for future equipment, and the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl).