News in Brief DE&S CEO gives keynote address at SupportNet 23

DE&S CEO Andy Start gave the keynote address on the second day of the SupportNet 23 conference in London on Friday 19 May. Organised by Strategic Command Defence Support, SupportNet 23 gathers defence leaders, industry, academia and international partners to discuss and reflect on how to deliver greater resilience for UK Defence Support.

Speaking alongside General Sir Jim Hockenhull, Commander Strategic Command, Andy Start made it clear that defence acquisition and support is a team sport that requires the entire Defence enterprise to work as one. He spoke about DE&S’ goals for the coming year and the urgent need to increase availability and support that is driving their plans to refresh its organisation-wide strategy.

“A need to be better is what’s driving the DE&S strategy, but our strategy is really a collaborative defence enterprise strategy, helping us to deliver the defence output, which is helping us to protect the nation… We have recognised that there is a compelling need for us to change.

“In terms of our mission output, we’re trying to get DE&S and the 160,000 of us who work in the defence industry that are part of that enabling capability into a position where we equip the UK Armed Forces with the edge to keep the nation safe.”