Royal Marine forced to test military drone in garden pond, Wes Streeting claims

Defence Secretary Wes Streeting has said defence technology testing is being held back due to “regulatory frictions”, leading some to take drastic measures.

Speaking to a House of Lords committee, Streeting highlighted the story of a Royal Marine who had to test an underwater military drone in his garden pond, as regulatory red tape made it difficult to carry out the trials elsewhere.

While he acknowledged there had been a “big drive on deregulation across government”, Streeting claimed that “regulatory frictions” were still hampering defence technology testing.

He told the Industry and Regulators Committee: “You can understand why, in a defence context, you don’t just take off all of the regulatory oversight and constraints because we are talking about lethal capability.

“But at the same time, we have got – throughout our armed forces and throughout industry – people who are chomping at the bit to push the frontier of innovation, but there is still more to do.”

He claimed: “I met one Royal Marine who was developing underwater drone technology but testing it in a pond in his back garden because the regulatory hurdles to test in other environments were too high, so he just took the risk himself and did it at home.

“I mean, I applaud his ingenuity and drive for innovation and entrepreneurial spirit, but there should be the same can-do approach in his workplace.”

Streeting insisted the government had the “right intention and ambition and spirit”, but said there was still “more to do and more to go at” to remove regulatory hurdles.

He told the committee: “Where industry tells us that there is pointless regulation getting in the way, where our armed forces frankly tell us there’s regulatory handcuffs getting in their way – and we agree with them that they are pointless and not serving their purpose, or the risk calculus is in the wrong place and we’re not getting the balance right – we are really keen to act.”

Streeting announced earlier that a defence investment summit, promised earlier this year as part of the government’s defence investment plan, will take place on December 1.

He said: “I think that is a great opportunity for this country to demonstrate the extent to which we are both investing more, but also open for business, and more than that, open for a real partnership with industry.”