SDR vs Spider’s Web: UK Defence Plans and Real-World Innovation

Issue 26: Operation Spider's Web, what the British Strategic Defence Review means for startups, drones in Latvia, and why the 'hybrid war' is over

Jun 03, 2025

spider web in grayscale photography — Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash

Good afternoon from the team at Resilience Media

After much anticipation, British Prime Minister, Kier Starmer, released yesterday the long-awaited Strategic Defence Review (SDR). The report was published late Monday afternoon to a fanfare of headlines about a ‘battle-ready’ Britain, a renewed fleet of 12 nuclear powered attack submarines, increased military stockpiles, and debate about an ‘ambition’ to reach 3% of GDP on defence spending rather than a commitment.

In all of that noise, there were no headline mentions of startups and where they fit in to the government’s 10 year plan. We’ve parsed the 25,000-word report for all references to startups (only seven, not including a footnote which defines ‘scale-up’), innovation (129 mentions), and tech. Read our full piece — with feedback from the startup community — here.

We found ourselves juxtaposing the SDR with Anders Fogh Rasmussen’s paper released last month, ‘Freedom is Not Free: A five-point plan for European Defence.’ I was in Denmark for the Copenhagen Democracy Summit, where the former Secretary General of NATO convened current and former world leaders with the explicit intention of linking democracy with defence and innovation. Of the reports’s tidy five sections, three of them are relevant to and actionable for the venture ecosystem. The paper is 30 pages long.

While Western governments make recommendations, Ukraine acts to defend itself and the rest of Europe from Russian aggression. The SDR was published against the backdrop of one of the most innovative and audacious attacks on enemy territory since World War II, Operation Spider’s Web, proving that drones remain a critical part of an arsenal, but also shining a light on the role of real innovation. Read our analysis of Operation Spider’s Web here.

Our writers were in Kyiv, Lviv, and Riga in the last week. Read more in our Dispatches From section below.

-Leslie, co-founder, Resilience Media

Since 2007, we have talked about Russia’s hybrid war. This term described actions against the West by Russia that stopped short of actual kinetic war. Anything that was not soldiers, tanks, explosives and weapons was hybrid war.

‘Hybrid war’ was a useful way to describe Russia’s behaviour back in 2007. That is the year Russia cyber-attacked Estonia and engineered riots on the streets of Tallinn. It was not an invasion, it did not involve soldiers, but it was an act of aggression of sorts.

To Putin’s regime, this has all been one war, but to the politicians and media in the West it is a series of random events. We have failed to understand and present it as one strategy that has now been in play for 18 years. Click here for the full piece.

Launch at Resilience Conference 2025 applications close on June 7. We’re looking for the next generation of defence and dual-use innovators. Know one? Send them our way: resilienceconference.io/launch

We’re curating a lineup of early-stage companies solving real national security challenges. We’ll put them on stage, in front of the right audience. No competition. No hype. Just a spotlight. Apply today.

To reach Riga’s Drone Summit, we’re driven to a military training area by the Ādaži Military Base, a paved area surrounded by fields and sand dunes. Half of the attendees are in military fatigues, and our conversations are interrupted by the occasional sound of explosions and gunfire not too far away. It makes this drone demonstration feel all the more real, and all the more urgent.

Seven drone companies from Latvia demonstrate their technologies, they showcase AI-targeting capabilities, dropping payloads on targets, fibre optical cables, and even landing and driving under a vehicle. The demonstration is opened with remarks from Major General Kaspars Pudāns, who stresses the importance of the gathering: “War is about the speed we can integrate and innovate. But we need to be ready in peacetime, before conflict starts.” Read the full piece here.

Cambridge Risk Research Symposium

We are keen to promote the Cambridge Centre for Risk Studies 2025 Symposium, held on June 26 in Cambridge. This year they are exploring key trends in the climate transition, discussing how geopolitics is starting to dominate attention, and how radical trends in new technologies are changing businesses. Understanding risk is essential for people looking at defence, national security, and resilience.

The Symposium brings together multidisciplinary attendees including risk managers, underwriters, actuaries, academics, policymakers, civil servants and other business managers. It is free to attend. Sign up at: https://lnkd.in/eeAuPKYh

SDR vs Spider’s Web: UK Defence Plans and Real-World Innovation

Issue 26: Operation Spider's Web, what the British Strategic Defence Review means for startups, drones in Latvia, and why the 'hybrid war' is over

Good afternoon from the team at Resilience Media

Cambridge Risk Research Symposium

Europe

Investing

Startups

UK Strategic Defence Review

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