Sponsored By Oxley Developments
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08 Jan 26. Roke – General Sir Roly Walker KCB DSO, the Chief of the General Staff (CGS) and professional head of the British Army, has opened a new £5m logistics and production hub at the Romsey headquarters of Roke, a sovereign UK company at the forefront of defence and national security. The CGS officially opened the new hub, which is named the Walker Building in his honour. It has been designed to provide an end-to-end capability in one dedicated facility: from innovation, design, testing and production to quality control, and shipping. It is purpose-built to provide Roke with the agility and scalability needed to meet customer demand faster than ever before, and will enable the company to innovate at a wartime pace – as called upon by Prime Minister Keir Starmer in the Strategic Defence Review.
Marc Overton, Roke Managing Director, said: “We were proud to welcome General Sir Roly Walker KCB DSO to our headquarters to open the new Walker Building. For us, this cutting-edge building is more than just a facility – it’s a force multiplier designed to give the UK’s armed forces and its allies a strategic advantage. By bringing every stage of development under one roof, we can accelerate delivery at a wartime pace, ensuring our troops and borders remain secure. The modern era of conflict demands we produce faster than ever before – with this new facility we stand ready to deliver at scale.
“This hub also strengthens Britain’s sovereign defence and national security capabilities, reducing reliance on non-sovereign providers and giving us full control from concept to deployment. It’s a clear example of industry stepping up to meet the nation’s call for speed, resilience, and innovation.
“Roke’s innovations have now been protecting UK troops and allies since 1946. As we move into our 70th anniversary, this milestone highlights how we will continue to protect our armed forces today and tomorrow.”
The facility is a key investment from Roke to support future growth, enabling the business to continue to deliver the intelligence, technology and engineering solutions to support UK troops, protecting our forces, allies, borders and businesses. The new building is built for a 10-year expansion plan, with the potential for an extra 50% more capacity. This provides Roke with the space to scale, amass high numbers of parts, and accelerate all orders through to delivery, shipping anywhere the customer needs.
Upon his visit General Sir Roly Walker KCB DSO, The British Army Chief of the General Staff, said “I’m delighted to open Roke’s new logistics and production hub. Facilities like this show UK industry stepping up to match that ambition and supporting the vision of growth through transformation.”
After officially opening the building, General Sir Roly Walker KCB DSO toured the facility and viewed some of the cutting-edge defence technology being developed by Roke. For 70 years, Roke’s innovations have safeguarded the UK, its armed forces and its allies. Roke’s people play a key role in developing cutting-edge technology – including AI, cybersecurity, robotics, and autonomous systems – that keeps the country safe now and ensures it stays ahead of emerging threats in the future.
09 Jan 26. Thales Powers CES-Winning Post-Quantum Chip from Samsung Electronics.
- Thales’ secure operating system (OS) supports Samsung’s security chip, winner of the CES 2026 ‘Best Cybersecurity Innovation’ Award.
- The chip is the first embedded Secure Element (eSE) to integrate post-quantum cryptography (PQC), protecting devices against tomorrow’s quantum-enabled cyber threats.
- Thales’ quantum-resistant software and OS enable unmatched performance, energy efficiency and long-term data protection.
Quantum computers, with their unprecedented processing power, will ultimately challenge today’s encryption standards. This is why Thales welcomes the CES 2026 recognition awarded to the new post-quantum–ready security chip from Samsung Electronics’ System LSI Business, which embeds Thales’ secure operating system and quantum-resistant cryptographic libraries. This breakthrough represents a major step forward in protecting connected devices against both current cyberattacks and tomorrow’s quantum-era threats. Thales’ hardened OS enables Samsung’s award-winning security chip to deliver hardware-based, quantum-resistant protection from the moment devices power on. Ultimately, it ensures that encrypted data and device credentials remain secure against both classical and quantum attacks, preserving confidentiality, integrity and long-term trust, even in a post-quantum world. The risk is not only future-oriented: malicious actors can already intercept and store encrypted data today, waiting for the moment quantum capability arrives to decrypt it later (“harvest now, decrypt later”). Indeed, with the expected power of quantum computing, anything protected by current standards (personal identities, sensitive credentials and even the cryptographic keys embedded in connected devices) could be exposed.
Thales’ OS and PQC libraries enable the Samsung chip to perform next-generation cryptography at high speed with reduced power and memory consumption. This ensures:
- Quantum-resistant encryption and authentication.
- High-performance cryptographic operations on the smallest footprint.
- Long-term confidentiality against “harvest now, decrypt later” attacks.
“We are very proud to partner with Samsung System LSI on this pioneering achievement. The S3SSE2A chip is a game-changer, offering robust, future-proof security in an energy-efficient design. This breakthrough confirms that post-quantum security is not just for high-end systems, it is essential for all connected devices, from consumer electronics to vast IoT ecosystems. Together, our companies have redefined what is possible for embedded cybersecurity, setting a new benchmark for the industry.” Eva Rudin, Vice President, Mobile Connectivity Solutions at Thales
Hwa Yeal Yu, vice president and head of the System LSI Security & Power Product Development Team at Samsung Electronics, added: “Samsung and Thales have built a long-standing collaboration in security, and we are pleased to introduce the S3SSE2A, the industry’s first PQC total solution. Developed jointly from the outset to integrate hardware and software, this solution delivers an exceptional level of security. We look forward to continuing our collaboration with Thales to advance security solutions for the next generation of connected devices.” (Source: ASD Network)
07 Jan 26. Dstl overcome challenges of interoperability with new software.
Dstl’s Single Information Environment (SInfoE) architecture solves the problem of accessing information across different systems and domains. For years, UK defence has been trying to solve the challenge of accessing information from lots of different systems and sources. The goal is to make sure all this information can be shared quickly, so military decision makers at every level have the full picture and can make smart decisions for successful military operations.
Information integration is the foundation of interoperability.
Information needs to be shared quickly from:
- radar
- satellites
- aircraft
- warships
- drones
- air defence systems
- soldiers on the ground
In the future, the military will use a mix of old and new systems, including autonomous platforms and fully digital tools like AI decision support. This will make managing and connecting all the information even more challenging.
How Single Information Environment architecture can help
Dstl’s Cyber and Information Systems (CIS) began tackling this problem in 2018 to explore the scope of the challenge, build consensus and develop possible solutions.
By 2021 the team, along with industry partners, had built the foundation of what is now known as the Single Information Environment (SInfoE) architecture. This is a set of MOD-owned software components that enable rapid search, discovery and access to data.
They ensure information can move smoothly from its point of origin to its point of need.
Involvement of MDIS
In 2021, Dstl’s work caught the attention of the Defence Equipment and Support led Game Changer programme called Multi-Domain Integrated Systems (MDIS).
What is Multi-Domain Integration?
The aim was to unlock the potential of drones working collaboratively to provide the UK Armed Forces with freedom of access and manoeuvre on the battlefield.
ARCHERON: the trial
In July 2024, MDIS conducted a month-long trial, ARCHERON, in which Royal Navy, Army, and Royal Air Force systems were integrated with drones from industry partners.
The trial successfully showed how the Single Information Environment can help different military systems from different suppliers quickly share critical operational data.
Amanda, Dstl Senior Principal Consultant and originator and coordinator of SInfoE architecture says: “The Single Information Environment facilitates fast discovery of, and access to, information from a range of military systems, allowing any system to be connected. It means defence can quickly get all the information it needs to carry out successful operations. NATO interoperability is a priority for UK MOD. NATO standards at the heart of the Single Information Environment make it easier to interoperate with NATO partners.”
Richard, Dstl Communications and Networks Programme Manager says: “Having just one Single Information Environment interface per system has the potential to significantly reduce integration time, to hours and days, while saving many millions of pounds.” (Source: https://www.gov.uk/)
05 Jan 26. Smart Eye, the global leader in Human Insight AI and Driver Monitoring Systems (DMS), and Green Hills Software, the worldwide leader in embedded safety and security, today announced a joint demonstration at CES 2026 highlighting how safety-critical driver monitoring can be seamlessly integrated into modern, consolidated automotive software-defined vehicle architectures. Together, Smart Eye and Green Hills are demonstrating a production-ready foundation for OEMs and Tier 1s seeking to accelerate the development and deployment of safe and secure driver monitoring on modern, software-defined vehicle architectures. The combined solution helps automakers reduce integration complexity, shorten validation cycles, and meet the growing safety and regulatory requirements for driver monitoring, including the EU General Safety Regulation (GSR) and the European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP). Built on production-grade software, the demo showcases Smart Eye’s driver monitoring software running alongside a digital instrument cluster on a single automotive engine control unit (ECU) powered by Green Hills Software’s ASIL-certified INTEGRITY® real-time operating system (RTOS). The solution demonstrates how mixed-criticality applications – like Smart Eye’s safety-critical DMS – can run safely and securely on the same compute platform while maintaining proven isolation and freedom-from-interference from other areas of the platform. To illustrate this architecture in action, the demo is part of a network of multiple in-vehicle ECUs, a cloud-connected gateway, and a driving simulation environment. Real-world driving events generated by the CARLA simulator are fed into the vehicle network, triggering visual alerts on the instrument cluster. When Smart Eye’s software detects driver distraction, the system broadcasts a DMS event across the network, prompting the cluster to display a “driver break needed” or “attention” warning on the cluster panel. These events are simultaneously logged by the gateway ECU and transmitted to the cloud by the gateway ECU for analytics and diagnostics. The demonstration also highlights Green Hills Software’s ASIL-certified next-generation development environment, giving developers a unified view across all applications and ECUs. In an intuitive graphical timeline display, engineers can trace events, monitor network messaging, and debug interactions across the cluster, gateway, zonal controller, and driver monitoring applications – significantly increasing developer productivity while reducing development and integration time.
“We’re proud to collaborate with Green Hills Software to demonstrate a truly production-focused approach to integrating driver monitoring into modern vehicle architectures,” said Martin Krantz, CEO of Smart Eye. “This joint solution shows how OEMs can bring safety-critical driver monitoring to market faster by combining our proven DMS software with a secure, consolidated compute platform designed for the challenging demands of today’s vehicles.”
“By pairing Smart Eye’s industry-leading driver monitoring software with our INTEGRITY RTOS and development tools, we’re delivering to OEMs and Tier 1s a clear path to deploy mixed-criticality applications safely and efficiently,” said Dan Mender, VP of Business Development at Green Hills Software. “This demo underscores how our combined technologies help customers accelerate the development of next-generation in-cabin safety systems, reduce integration efforts, and ensure freedom-from-interference.”
Smart Eye and Green Hills Software will showcase their integrated automotive platform at CES 2026, January 6–9, in the Green Hills Software booth #6227 in the West Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center. For OEMs and partners interested in a demonstration, meeting requests can be submitted at https://www.ghs.com/events/CES_2026.html.
06 Jan 26. ESOX Group has set out how a new generation of solid-state battery technology will be applied to defence platforms. Following the announcement at CES 2026 by Donut Lab of the world’s first production-ready solid-state battery, ESOX confirmed that it is working under a defence-specific licensing framework to deploy the technology across military and security applications. The company is completing final defence testing of the solid state technology with selected partners ahead of a production ramp-up in the second half of 2026, aligned with qualification and integration timelines. While Donut Lab’s announcement focused on bringing solid-state batteries into passenger vehicles, ESOX is addressing how the same technology translates into defence and security applications, where safety, survivability, endurance and supply-chain resilience are critical. At CES 2026, ESOX is presenting its X1 interceptor drone and X2 UGV technology demonstrator, which serve as integration platforms for future solid-state battery deployment across uncrewed air and ground systems.
“As defence spending rises, so does demand for batteries across uncrewed systems and critical military technologies,” said Dan Walmsley, CEO of ESOX Group. “For Europe and its allies, ensuring an assured and resilient battery supply chain is becoming as important as performance itself. Our new solid-state technology offers a way to improve survivability, endurance and safety while strengthening domestic and allied industrial capability.”
Applying solid-state batteries to defence platforms
For defence applications, the range, payload, endurance, survivability and logistics are all directly shaped by battery performance. The solid-state battery technology introduced by ESOX and Donut Lab delivers characteristics that are particularly relevant to defence use. With an energy density of 400 Wh/kg, the technology enables lighter battery packs without compromising capacity. For aerial drones, where every gram affects range, endurance and manoeuvrability, this represents a material operational advantage. The batteries are designed for extreme longevity, with a design life of up to 100,000 charge cycles and minimal capacity fade over time. For defence operators, this reduces replacement frequency, lowers lifecycle cost and improves fleet readiness. The solid-state design eliminates flammable liquid electrolytes, thermal runaway chains and metallic dendrites. This removes the root causes of battery fires and improves survivability when batteries are damaged, stressed or exposed to hostile conditions. Performance has been validated across extreme temperatures. Testing shows the batteries retain over 99% of capacity at –30°C and continue to retain over 99% capacity at temperatures exceeding 100°C, with no signs of ignition or degradation. This resilience is critical for military systems expected to operate reliably across diverse and unpredictable environments. Charging performance is equally important. Solid-state chemistry allows rapid charging without the limitations typically imposed on lithium-ion systems, supporting faster turnaround times and operational tempo. Just as important for defence platforms is design freedom. The batteries can be produced in custom sizes, voltages and geometries, enabling freeform integration into airframes, vehicle structures or chassis. Rather than designing platforms around rigid battery formats, engineers can shape power systems around mission requirements, payload placement and protection needs.
X1 and X2 as integration platforms
At CES, ESOX demonstrated how this approach translates into real systems through its X1 and X2 platforms. The X1 interceptor drone is a cost-effective counter-UAV platform built on a multi-role airframe. It supports long-range communications and sensor integration and uses ESOX’s AI algorithms for target acquisition and strike accuracy. The platform has been designed with future battery integration in mind, allowing power systems to be optimised for range, endurance and survivability rather than constrained by legacy formats. The prototype’s first flight is planned for January 2026, with an industrialised variant due in April. The X2 UGV technology demonstrator is a compact autonomous ground platform designed to showcase ESOX’s integrated propulsion and control systems. Powered by four 12-inch Theron Motors in a tank-steer configuration, X2 highlights how drivetrain simplicity, precise control and modular power architectures can be combined in a single platform. The vehicle is attracting enquiries from UGV manufacturers seeking integrated propulsion solutions and serves as a testbed for solid-state battery deployment.
Together, X1 and X2 provide ESOX with practical platforms for integrating solid-state batteries into defence-grade systems, moving beyond laboratory validation toward operational use.
Batteries as a strategic defence capability
Batteries have quietly become one of the most important enabling technologies in modern defence. As NATO nations increase defence spending and accelerate the adoption of uncrewed and autonomous systems, demand for advanced batteries is rising sharply across air, land, sea and space domains. UAVs now play a central role in modern warfare, driving rapid expansion in drone manufacturing across Europe and North America. Each platform requires a battery, and often multiple batteries across its operational lifecycle. As volumes scale, the question of where those batteries are designed, manufactured and sourced has become a strategic concern. China currently dominates much of the global battery value chain, from raw materials through to cell manufacturing. For defence planners, this concentration presents a growing dependency at a time when battery demand is rising in parallel with defence budgets. ESOX believes this moment represents an opportunity to strengthen European industrial capability, reduce supply-chain risk and deploy new battery technologies that improve battlefield performance.
Designed and built in Europe
A key aspect of the solid-state battery technology is its supply-chain profile. The batteries are made entirely from abundant, affordable and geopolitically safe materials and do not rely on rare or sensitive elements. They also demonstrate a lower cost than conventional lithium-ion technologies.
For ESOX and its defence partners, this supports a designed in Europe, built in Europe approach aligned with NATO and allied industrial strategies.
Part of a wider ESOX technology suite
Solid-state batteries form one element of a broader ESOX technology stack. This includes high-torque, low-signature electric propulsion, no-code software environments for rapid control-system development, and Digital Twin 2.0 simulation that allows the same software to run on both hardware and virtual platforms.
By integrating these capabilities, ESOX aims to shorten development cycles, reduce deployment risk and deliver systems guided by mission needs rather than fixed technology constraints.
Visitors to CES 2026 can view the scaled X1 model, the X2 demonstrator and live video demonstrations on the ESOX stand in the West Hall (5759).
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Oxley Group Ltd
Oxley offer a range of Military Marine NVG friendly LED lighting that includes navigation lights and controls, flight deck landing lights and interior compartment lighting. Our lighting products are used by Navies around the world including our own Royal Navy on UK Aircraft Carriers, Canadian Frigates, Swedish Submarines, Australian Surface vessels and Submarines, on board French Naval Carriers and in Naval Gun Turrets.
https://oxleydevelopments.cmail20.com/t/t-l-cdhkulk-yujhutkljd-r/
The technology is extremely energy efficient and built robustly, with proven long life. The lighting is NVG friendly, dimmable and programmable to allow for operations with aircraft pilots using military night vision goggles. They offer superior design giving high reliability for the most demanding environments with high sealing and the ability to meet the most stringent EMC standards.
https://oxleydevelopments.cmail20.com/t/t-l-cdhkulk-yujhutkljd-y/
Oxley are proud to say that we are working in partnership with SeaKing to enable a control panel to be offered with our LED Navigation Lighting. All of Oxley navigation lights have been specifically developed for vessels over 50 metres.
Contact Marcus Goad on 07850 917 263 for more information or to arrange samples.
Oxley specialises in the design and manufacture of advanced electronic and electro-optic components and systems for air, land and sea applications within the military sector. Established in 1942, Oxley has manufacturing facilities in the UK and USA and enjoys representation worldwide. The company’s products include night vision and LED lighting, data capture systems and electronic components. Oxley has pioneered the development of night vision compatible lighting. It offers a total package incorporating optical filters, equipment modification, cockpit and external lighting along with fleet wide upgrade services including engineering, installation, support, maintenance and training. The company’s long experience of manufacturing night vision lighting and LED indicators, coupled with advances in LED technology, has enabled it to develop LED solutions to replace incandescent and fluorescent lighting in existing applications as well as becoming the lighting option of choice in new applications such as portable military hospitals, UAV control stations and communication shelters.
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