Plextek, the Cambridge, UK-based electronics and communications design consultancy, has formed a specialist Defence Group focussed specifically on defence contracts and liaison with the UK MoD. The Defence Group has been set up as part of a strategic initiative to help raise the company’s visibility in the supply chain and strengthen its existing relationships with the MoD and the wider defence industry.

Central to the set up of the Defence Group is Plextek’s recent acquisition of Cambridge Unmanned, whose expertise includes research and development of unmanned air systems, air vehicle propulsion, system integration, simulation and modelling, and prototype trials and demonstrations. Cambridge Unmanned’s core team of vastly experienced defence specialists has been retained.

The Defence Group team combines vast experience of government, defence and commercial projects with skill sets in software and hardware design, mathematical modelling and simulation, aeronautical engineering, rapid prototyping/manufacture and systems engineering.

“Over the years Plextek has built up solid experience in the design of defence electronics, working with many of the main defence primes and to a limited extent the MoD,” explained Ian Murphy, technical director at Plextek. “Last year the defence sector accounted for about 25 per cent of Plextek’s business, but we’ve always felt that we were skimming the surface in terms of the potential opportunities that existed.”

He continued, “The new Defence Group will help Plextek get itself known higher up the defence supply chain so we’re closer to the right people and are more aware of opportunities. This will help us to turn more ideas and leads into actual business and hopefully build initial projects into bigger follow up work. The team’s vast experience in the defence industry means they talk the right language and provide customers with a focused interface which will service their needs to the best of our ability.”