Forging a Resilient Britain: A Partnership for Industrial Strength

A Call to Reinforce Britain’s Industrial Strength

Reinforcing the Foundations of Capability

The report highlights a challenge the UK has faced throughout its modern history: while we will always be connected to global markets, our resilience depends on maintaining critical domestic capabilities in the areas that keep the country functioning. Even during the Second World War, the UK relied on imports — but it also retained strong domestic production in steel, chemicals, energy systems and defence engineering.

Today, those foundational capabilities have thinned significantly. The report sets out how gaps in materials manufacturing, chemicals production, energy security, and electronics leave key sectors exposed. This does not mean the UK should aim for self-sufficiency — but rather that the capabilities most essential to national resilience must be strengthened, supported, and protected.

The report also stresses that critical infrastructure — electricity, gas networks, telecoms, and data centres — must be able to operate securely and independently, even when international supply chains come under strain. These systems underpin every part of national life and require the right combination of sovereign capability, secure technology, and dependable industrial capacity.

Industrial Capability and Infrastructure Go Hand in Hand

The report makes clear that the UK’s industrial capabilities are inseparable from the critical national infrastructure they support. If the foundational industries that supply materials, components and technology weaken, the infrastructure they enable becomes vulnerable too.

This interdependence is central to Thales’s work across the UK. Our mission is to protect the energy, transport, communications and digital systems that keep the country running — but true resilience also depends on ensuring the industrial ecosystem beneath them is strong  enough to withstand disruption.

Resilience Through Sovereign Capability

True resilience depends on the ability to build, maintain and innovate the technologies that secure our way of life.

Across the UK, Thales is investing in that principle — from advanced manufacturing in Belfast to our research hubs in Reading, Crawley and Bristol. We are helping ensure that the  critical systems Britain relies on — from sovereign cryptography to air-defence munitions  and trusted AI — are designed, developed and supported on British soil.

“Resilience is not built in isolation; it is forged through a national partnership of government vision, industrial capability and technological innovation.” 

Building a Resilient Industrial Ecosystem

Rebuilding resilience requires more than isolated policy actions — it demands a coordinated national effort to reinforce the UK’s industrial ecosystem.

Thales has long recognised that a resilient prime contractor cannot exist without a resilient supply chain. Through our SME Partnering Programme, Thales provides a gateway for over 1,200 UK suppliers to integrate their innovation into national security solutions.

By cultivating a diverse, onshore network of technology partners, we are helping to strengthen Britain’s sovereign capability — ensuring innovation and manufacturing remain here, where they are most needed.

Internationally, our work on the Miecznik programme in Poland — transferring technology and skills to reinforce an ally’s defence industrial base — offers a model for collaborative capability-building that enhances resilience for both nations.

Innovating Our Way to Resilience

The report warns that the transition to Net Zero, combined with global supply-chain fragility, risks creating new dependencies if not carefully managed. The answer is not to slow down innovation, but to innovate our way to resilience.

Thales is actively supporting the UK’s low-carbon transition through advanced technologies that optimise energy efficiency, enhance cyber and physical security, and strengthen industrial capability. From secure communications for energy networks to cyber-resilient control systems, we are helping safeguard the systems driving the transition to cleaner energy.

Our UK-based R&D teams are also pioneering advances in artificial intelligence, quantum technologies and resilient communications, supporting sectors where resilience, safety and performance go hand in hand. 

A Shared Mission for the Nation

The NPC’s report is not a lament for lost industry; it is a blueprint for action. It calls for a coordinated, long-term effort, including the development of a Critical Materials Manufacturing Strategy to reinforce essential capabilities and build a stronger foundation for national resilience.

We fully agree. Resilience cannot be outsourced or improvised; it must be built deliberately through partnership and sustained investment. Thales is committed to that mission.