Royal Marine tested underwater drone in his back garden pond because of UK red tape
A Royal Marine was forced to test a new type of underwater drone in a pond his back garden as red tape blocked him from performing the test in more official circumstances.
The case was detailed in a new parliamentary report titled ‘Ready for action in 1,000 days?’, which looks at the UK’s needs to be ready to fight or deter military action within 1,000 days.
Defence Secretary Wes Streeting described the case to the House of Lords Industry and Regulators Committee as an example of how red tape was crushing the UK’s security ambitions.
“We have heard that some of the regulation is a bit out of date. It was probably apocryphal, but we heard about some autonomous marine vehicles having to have a lifejacket on board,” he said.
He noted that a large part of his department’s focus is now about taking back control, sovereign capability and improving democratic accountability and our ability to respond as politicians when the public complain, rather than hide behind regulators and say that it is some unelected quango’s fault.
“There is a big drive across government on deregulation and improving how, as a state, we become much more agile, innovative, flexible and responsive, which is really important not only on the growth and opportunity side of the Government’s ledger but on the defence and security side.
“The Chancellor has recommitted to reducing the administrative burden of regulation on business by 25% by the end of the Parliament. We are still routinely receiving reports of regulatory frictions, which led to the Regulatory Innovation Office adopting defence technology as a focus area.”
He added that within a defence context it is not possible to take off all the regulatory oversight and constraints, because of lethal capability. But, at the same time, throughout Armed Forces and the defence industry, people are ‘champing at the bit’ to push the frontier of innovation, he said.
“There is still more to do. I met one Royal Marine who was developing underwater drone technology. He was testing it in a pond in his back garden because the regulatory hurdles to test in other environments were too high. He just took the risk himself and did it at home.
“I applaud his ingenuity, drive for innovation and entrepreneurial spirit, but there should be the same can-do approach in his workplace.”
Preparing for war
In the report, advisory firm Deloitte described regulation as a ‘critical constraint’ in ensuring defence readiness as approval can affect supply chains and delay delivery of new technologies. The advisory company argued that the key test was whether regulation supports speed, scale and resilience during times of peak demand, such as crisis and war.
Simon Galt (Managing Director at QinetiQ) suggested that fast-tracking approvals in times of imminent demand would benefit companies like his as well as creating regulatory sandboxes where companies can operate within a specific area. He also mentioned possible “blanket approvals” for routine activity that would speed up regulatory decisions.
Blythe Crawford, a retired Air Commodore and Director at Tiberius Aerospace, said the timing of regulation posed challenges as ‘unpredictable and protracted regulatory timelines raise the cost of capital for investors and are a material deterrent to smaller suppliers, who cannot absorb months of delay in the way a large prime contractor can’.
He recommended regulators act as ‘co-designers of the assurance pathway alongside industry from the start of a programme’.
According to the Single Source Regulations Office (SSRO), the greatest risk or barrier to investment is not the existence of regulation, but uncertainty or misunderstanding about how the framework operates, and whether it is applied proportionately and consistently.
