Reflections from our February 2025 Connect Over A Cuppa with Damian Walsh of Wraith Defence
At our 20 February 2025 Connect Over A Cuppa, we heard from Damian Walsh, Chief Commercial Officer of Wraith Defence, about the realities of trying to build a new UK defence manufacturing business at a time when the geopolitical environment was changing rapidly.
Wraith Defence, now Armexis, had an ambitious proposition: develop protected military vehicles that could be manufactured at speed and scale, provide better value and, crucially, remain robust and repairable in the environments in which they would actually be used.
Damian’s presentation wasn’t simply about designing an armoured vehicle. It raised some much bigger questions about defence procurement, UK manufacturing, supply chains, recruitment and whether our pursuit of increasingly sophisticated technology can sometimes get in the way of delivering what is actually needed.
With budget pressures in every aspect of British life… how, where, when and on what we spend taxpayers money is highly relevant.
With many high profile defence contracts costing millions more than expected, experiencing significant overruns with little to show for it, there’s a compelling case for more robust, repairable and deployable equipment.
Does cutting-edge always mean better?
One of the most thought-provoking parts of Damian’s presentation was his challenge to the conventional direction of defence development.
His description was deliberately provocative: “The defence industry is broken.”
Part of the problem, is an emphasis on what the presentation described as “exquisite, expensive technology”, increasingly sophisticated platforms that can take a long time and considerable amounts of money to develop.
There is an obvious attraction to developing the most technologically advanced solution possible. But Damian encouraged us to consider the practical environment in which military equipment ultimately has to operate.
If something goes wrong hundreds of miles from a specialist maintenance facility, can it be repaired? Are replacement components readily available? Does the technology provide sufficient additional operational value to justify the extra complexity and cost?
Wraith’s philosophy was therefore rather different: mechanically simple and mechanically sound, using proven technology wherever possible rather than adding complexity for its own sake.
There’s a broader innovation lesson in that. The most advanced solution isn’t necessarily the most useful solution. Good product development starts with understanding what the customer actually needs the product to do.
Speed, volume and cost matter too
The changing nature of global conflict had also exposed another issue.
Wraith argued that pressure on allied defence resources was at a level not experienced since the Second World War, while much of the existing market remained characterised by relatively low production volumes and long lead times. Its presentation argued that large prime defence companies could struggle to manufacture cost-effective vehicles quickly and in sufficient quantities.
That created the opportunity Wraith was pursuing.
Rather than trying to replicate the structure of an established defence prime, the company was building a lean organisation intended to move more quickly and manufacture protected platforms at more economical price points.
The proposition wasn’t simply “Can we build a better vehicle?”
It was also: Can we build enough of them, quickly enough and at a cost that makes operational sense?
That’s an important distinction. A brilliant product that cannot be manufactured economically or delivered when the customer needs it doesn’t necessarily represent a brilliant commercial solution.
Building a UK supply chain
Damian also talked about something that will be familiar to many manufacturing businesses: the importance of the supply chain.
For Wraith, however, this wasn’t simply about finding the cheapest component.
The company had deliberately sought to develop a robust network of UK suppliers. Its presentation contrasted this with competitors reliant on outsourced production and slower global supply chains. Wraith’s intended model combined in-house production with UK suppliers, faster production times and a simpler mechanical platform.
There were practical reasons for that approach. Working with suppliers closer to home can make communication easier, shorten supply chains and provide greater visibility over quality.
But in defence, supply-chain integrity has an additional strategic significance. Understanding where components come from, whether they will remain available and how dependent the product is on overseas suppliers can become part of the resilience of the product itself.
Recent global events have probably made many businesses reconsider the assumption that the lowest-cost global supply chain is automatically the best one.
Scaling the people as quickly as the production
Another challenge Damian highlighted was recruitment.
Wraith’s ambitions required the organisation to grow quickly, but recruiting at pace while maintaining the right skills and culture isn’t straightforward.
The presentation described a deliberately flat management structure and a multi-disciplinary team combining commercial, defence and military experience. The business model was designed around a team capable of expanding and contracting as production requirements changed.
Its plans at the time were substantial. The presentation projected up to 450 jobs during the first phase, with a longer-term ambition of around 1,000 jobs. Recruitment, training, leadership and R&D were all identified as priorities for the next stage.
It’s a useful reminder that scaling a manufacturing business isn’t simply about finding a bigger factory and installing more equipment.
You have to scale the organisation around it.
That means recruiting people, developing managers, transferring knowledge, establishing processes and ensuring that rapid growth doesn’t undermine the quality or responsiveness that created the opportunity in the first place.
The challenge of doing business with defence
Damian was also candid about the difficulty of operating within the UK defence environment.
Defence is an unusual market. The customer is ultimately government, procurement processes can be complex and lengthy, and the capital required to develop and manufacture equipment can be substantial.
Wraith’s presentation identified funding and even banking among the challenges it had encountered.
That creates an interesting tension for an entrepreneurial company.
The market may need greater speed, innovation and competition, but the structures surrounding that market can make it difficult for newer and smaller organisations to enter and scale.
Damian’s experience therefore raised a broader question about UK industrial strategy: if we want innovative British companies to strengthen our domestic defence capability, do our procurement and financial systems make it sufficiently possible for them to do so?
Cost versus value
One of Wraith’s stated principles was ethical pricing.
Its presentation described a strategy based on cost-effective pricing, collaboration with academic, industrial, military and political partners and delivering exceptional value for money at scale.
That fits with the wider philosophy Damian described.
Rather than asking how much technology could be incorporated into a vehicle, the starting point was closer to: what does the person using this vehicle actually need?
Protection matters. Reliability matters. Repairability matters. Availability matters. Cost matters.
And in an environment where equipment can be damaged or destroyed, the ability to manufacture replacement vehicles at scale matters too.
At the time of updating this document, we can see the huge pressures on military supply chain, and the implications on NATO member stockpiles through the loan of equipment to Ukraine, and the long manufacturing lead times.
Defence as a national capability
There was also a wider strategic theme running through Damian’s presentation: the UK’s ability to provide for its own defence.
The experience of recent conflicts has demonstrated how quickly demand for equipment can increase and how difficult it can be to expand manufacturing capacity after that demand has already arrived.
Factories, skilled people and supply chains cannot simply be switched on overnight.
Wraith’s model placed considerable emphasis on UK production, UK suppliers, training and the development of domestic manufacturing capability. At the time of the presentation, it was also partnering with academic and apprenticeship schemes to support future skills development.
That raises questions that go beyond an individual company.
What capabilities does the UK need to retain domestically? Where are the vulnerabilities in our supply chains? And how do we maintain enough manufacturing capacity and skills during quieter periods so they are available when circumstances suddenly change?
Those aren’t decisions that can be made after a crisis has begun.
Build for the real world
What I particularly liked about Damian’s presentation was that beneath the scale of the ambition sat a relatively straightforward product philosophy.
Don’t make something complicated simply because you can.
Wraith’s competitive analysis described its approach as in-house production, a robust UK supply chain, fast production, competitive pricing and vehicles that were mechanically simple and sound.
That philosophy has relevance well beyond defence.
Innovation doesn’t always mean adding another feature, another piece of software or another layer of technology. Sometimes genuine innovation comes from stripping a product back to the things the customer values most and finding a better way of delivering them.
For a military vehicle operating in difficult conditions, that might mean protection, reliability, repairability, cost and availability.
And perhaps there is a useful question for any of us developing products or services:
Are we designing what is technically possible — or what the customer actually needs?
For Wraith Defence, now Armexis, that distinction sat at the heart of its ambition: to build protected vehicles around the realities of modern conflict and manufacture them at the speed and scale those realities increasingly demand.
Today, the company’s focus is on supplying vehicles to Ukraine, a rather stark reminder that the issues Damian discussed with us in February 2025 were anything but theoretical.