London, UK – 2nd February, 2026
The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) has demonstrated clear progress in delivering on its commitment to small and medium enterprises, with the SCEPTRE consortium downselected onto the Digital Decision Accelerators for Defence (DDAD) framework.
DDAD is designed to accelerate the adoption of advanced digital decision-making capabilities across defence. By selecting a sovereign, SME-led consortium such as SCEPTRE, the MoD is translating policy intent into action – backing proven British capability and enabling it to scale at pace.
SCEPTRE represents a sovereign UK capability, bringing together best-of-British technology, close collaboration with UK academia, and UK-based decision-making. Sovereignty in this context means not just where technology is built, but where strategic decisions are taken, people are employed, and economic value is retained – firmly in the UK.
The downselection builds on SCEPTRE’s established delivery record, including delivery of a Digital Targeting Web demonstration which proved both technical maturity and operational relevance – working towards imperatives set out in 2025’s Strategic Defence Review. DDAD now marks the transition from demonstration to deployable, commercially viable capability.
A founding member of the SCEPTRE consortium, Hadean, was recently highlighted in the MoD’s announcement by Defence Secretary John Healey MP launching the Search for Britain’s Next Defence Unicorn, reinforcing the role of high-growth defence SMEs in delivering future capability. With a target of delivering the £7.5 billion SME spend by May 2028 commitment from the Defence Industrial Strategy, this is supported by the new £20 million fund and forming part of a wider drive to spend £2.5 billion more with SMEs, alongside the Office for SME Growth announced by Defence Readiness and Industry Minister Luke Pollard MP.
The consortium’s updated Operational View (OV-1), outlining how SCEPTRE partners’ technology integrates across defence decision-making, is available at https://www.sceptre.org.uk. They are doing a demo of operational capability in Plymouth in April.
Craig Beddis, CEO, Hadean, said: “This is about proactively demonstrating the very best of British capability – showing how UK organisations of any size work together to deliver trusted, sovereign technology at pace. We are greater than the sum of the parts.”