Five UK SMEs win AWS-backed support

Five UK-based SMEs have been selected to participate in project ‘Vanguard’, an initiative designed to modernise their manufacturing and industrial capabilities through Amazon Web Services (AWS).  

Announced on 25 March by UK defence minister Luke Pollard at the DPRTE event in Farnborough, this first cohort of SMEs will each receive AWS credits to digitise their services.  

Vanguard is a collaboration between AWS, the Make UK trade association, and the Ministry of Defence’s (MoD) new Office for Small Business Growth. Pollard says it will “modernise and transform the manufacturing industrial capabilities with the UK’s SME community.”  

It seeks to achieve this through the provision of technical training, enhanced access to AWS engineers and defence sector specialists, and business development mentorship.  

The selected companies include:  

• British Rototherm Group, a measurement solutions company in Port Talbot 
• MSI-Defence Systems Ltd, a weapon systems manufacturer in Norwich 
• On-Systems, a power solutions company in Herefordshire 
• Shearwater Marine Services, a provider of naval engineering solutions in Scotland 
• Whippendell Marine, a maritime electronics company specialising in harsh environments in Milton Keynes 

The support tools are expected to bolster these companies’ efforts to modernise their simulation, data analytics, and production optimisation capabilities, helping them better compete in an era of rapid technological change. 

Vanguard “will provide British SMEs with world-class cloud technology and expertise that will enable them to compete globally and support our national defence”, Andrew Kinnibrugh, Director General of Make UK Defence said at the event. 

The announcement of this first cohort comes amid a flurry of ‘back British’ and ‘support SMEs’ sentiment at the DPRTE event; however, the delayed Defence Investment Plan – likely to proceed the upcoming MoD SME Action Plan – has overshadowed discussions.