April 5, 2022 11.05 am This story is over 23 months old

New defence and security development supports RAF Waddington

Putting Lincolnshire’s Defence Sector on the Map
Air Chief Marshal Sir Stuart Peach, the former Chief of the Defence Staff, was the guest speaker at the dinner.

A new defence and security cluster will be created to support the surveillance and reconnaissance capability at RAF Waddington.

The Defence and Security Board of the Greater Lincolnshire Local Enterprise Partnership will form the Greater Lincolnshire Regional Defence & Security Cluster.

It will support the ISTAR (intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance) Force at RAF Waddington.

The focus of the cluster will be on the sensors, tools and processes required to collect information and data to enable better and quicker decisions.

The new development was announced at a dinner at the Belton Woods Hotel near Grantham on March 30, which was hosted by the Greater Lincolnshire LEP.

Former Chief of the Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Stuart Peach, was a guest speaker at the event. He outlined the region’s historical links to the defence sector, its long tradition of innovation, and it’s suitability to host a cluster focused on supporting innovation in the field of intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance.

The dinner was hosted at the Belton Woods Hotel by the Greater Lincolnshire LEP.

The dinner was attended by representatives from the government’s Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA), which oversees the Regional Defence & Security Cluster programme.

Others attended from the LEP, local RAF stations, government and local authorities, business, industry, the University of Lincoln and the Lincoln Science & Innovation Park.

Julian Free CBE is Deputy Vice Chancellor at the University of Lincoln and Chair of the LEP’s Defence and Security Board.

Julian Free CBE, Deputy Vice Chancellor at the University of Lincoln and Chair of the LEP’s Defence and Security Board, said: “This event was all about putting our defence and security sector on the map and discussing our ambitions for this very important area.

“Defence and security is one of Greater Lincolnshire’s game-changing sectors and the dinner was an excellent opportunity to bring some of the key players together to discuss the way forward.

“Our ambition is to establish Greater Lincolnshire as a national defence and security innovation, production and service hub and to promote our ability to develop and support defence and security programmes to increase regional wealth through greater public and private inward investment and the creation of high-value, better paid jobs.

“Our history, our present-day links with the RAF and our growing capabilities in defence and security technology make Greater Lincolnshire an eminently suitable location for this cluster.”