IN Brief:
- Project Safari will provide a single initial route into UK sovereign test and evaluation facilities for smaller defence companies.
- The MOD and QinetiQ have agreed the first design stage of proposed investment at the Hebrides weapons range.
- Test approvals, range safety and technical acceptance will remain necessary despite the planned access reforms.
The Ministry of Defence and QinetiQ have launched Project Safari, a programme intended to make specialist British test and evaluation facilities more accessible to small defence companies developing new equipment and technologies.
Smaller businesses will have a single initial route into the specialist test-and-evaluation estate, while the Ministry of Defence and its partners seek to streamline the approvals required for trials. Project Safari is intended to shorten the journey between prototype development and useful evidence of performance under representative conditions. The planned access reform gives no universal entitlement to a test slot, however, and does not remove the safety, security or technical checks needed for an individual trial.
At MOD Hebrides, Minister for Defence Readiness and Industry Luke Pollard signed an agreement with QinetiQ for the first design stage of proposed multimillion-pound investment in the weapons range. The plans encompass testing requirements for hypersonic missiles and other advanced technologies. Neither the full scope of facilities to be built nor a final construction timetable has been announced, so the agreement marks an initial design commitment rather than operational expansion already delivered.
A company can test substantial portions of a prototype in its own laboratory, yet proving a complete defence system may require controlled airspace, long instrumented distances and specialised measurement equipment. Guided weapons may need telemetry, flight tracking and safety assessment during integrated trials; directed-energy systems require controlled operating conditions and defined protection arrangements. Autonomous vehicles must demonstrate behaviour when navigation, communications and environmental conditions differ from the laboratory.
Scheduling a trial at a defence range involves more than reserving equipment. The user may have to prepare a safety case, agree operating limits, satisfy security requirements and coordinate instrumentation with range controllers. Hazardous materials or emissions can create additional restrictions. A simpler application route may reduce administrative duplication while leaving the technical burden of producing acceptable test evidence substantially unchanged.
The MOD and QinetiQ identify multiple approval layers as a barrier, especially for smaller companies and businesses supplying defence for the first time. Identifying the correct range, understanding what information the operator requires and arranging access can use engineering time before a test programme even begins. Safari proposes to connect government, range providers, regulators and suppliers so these decisions can be made through a more coherent process.
Once a prototype reaches a representative environment, differences from component testing can become apparent. Vibration, temperature, electromagnetic interference or intermittent communications may reveal faults in the interaction between subsystems. Engineers then need recorded measurements that can be traced to a particular configuration, so a design change can be evaluated against the original fault. A faster route to a range is useful only if the trial produces dependable evidence for subsequent development and assessment.
The proposed Hebrides investment addresses another constraint: some advanced trials require instrumentation, tracking arrangements and range geometry beyond those needed for more conventional equipment. High-speed flight can compress the time available to observe events and collect useful telemetry. The design work will have to establish what facilities are needed for particular test profiles, but no detailed equipment schedule or cost breakdown has yet been published.
SME representatives from Greenjets and Cambridge Aerospace attended a discussion about accessing testing services during Pollard’s visit. The minister also met Oxfordshire-based MGI Engineering, which is involved in Project Brakestop and developing lower-cost long-range weapons for Ukraine. Those examples indicate the breadth of technologies that may require specialist evaluation; no Safari test booking or new procurement award for the attendees has been specified.
Safari sits within the government’s broader Strategic Defence Review commitment to increase annual spending with SMEs by £2.5 billion by summer 2028. That is a departmental spending ambition, not an allocation of £2.5 billion to the testing programme. Likewise, the much larger Defence Investment Plan covers several years of defence expenditure and does not specify the budget for Safari’s access reforms.
Measurements obtained during a range trial can inform a decision to revise a prototype, repeat an experiment or proceed towards procurement assessment. Engineers need to know which hardware and software configuration was tested, how the instrumentation was calibrated and which operating conditions were reproduced. Project Safari could help smaller companies reach that evidence-gathering stage sooner, while range authorities retain responsibility for safe and technically appropriate trials.
Project Safari’s immediate task is to establish a workable route for smaller suppliers to identify and arrange suitable tests at existing facilities. At Hebrides, the separate design work must determine the instrumentation, infrastructure and investment needed before new trial capability can be installed. The MOD has yet to publish completion timetables for either initiative.
