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Dstl webinar: Warfare in the Information Age

This webinar recording discusses the opportunity, issues and military benefits that the Information Age presents.

Graphic of digital wire

The Information Age is changing the nature of the threat to the UK’s defence and security for example through the power of social media. But just as the UK needs to evolve in order to respond to these new digital threats, we are also presented with the opportunity to get ahead of the game.

The Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) is exploring which emerging information technologies have the power to transform our military capabilities and hosted a webinar in February 2016, Warfare in the Information Age.

Recording available now. This link is available until 29 February 2016. You’ll need to log in with your name, email and organisation details.

Considering the exponential growth in processing power, data and connectivity that is fuelling the current Information Age, it is likely that the UK’s defence and security capabilities will need to be different if the UK is to achieve operational advantage in a very competitive and challenging geo-political environment. Dstl is developing a programme of concept development and experimentation which will allow individuals and organisations alike to get involved.

Science and Technology Symposium

In December 2014, General Barrons, Commander of the Joint Forces Command (JFC), set out a paper entitled Warfare in the Information Age (WitIA). This outlined the current challenges and realities, and the technological opportunities of the future. Dstl is working with JFC to understand how the Information Age is changing warfare, and developing innovative concepts that will enable MOD to meet its future challenges. The next major milestone in this work will be a Science and Technology (S&T) symposium in April 2016.

Suppliers will be invited to demonstrate their future concepts to key senior military stakeholders, to discuss their application in a military context and to assist Dstl in identifying the building blocks for future capability. The S&T symposium will be based around the five themes of S&T activity under WitIA:

  1. Agile command and control
  2. Enhanced understanding
  3. Improved decision making
  4. New capabilities enabled by the Information Age
  5. Conventional capabilities enhanced by the Information Age

The symposium will be a one-day event, held on 27 April and repeated on 28 April. Listen to the WitIA webinar recording for more detail.

Published 27 January 2016
Last updated 15 March 2024 + show all updates
  1. Removed old document for submissions and with it the following text: 'If you would like to demonstrate your future concepts at the symposium, please complete a [InlineAttachment:1] and email it to the [Warfare in the Information Age team](mailto:witia@dstl.gov.uk). The deadline for submissions is 22 February 2016.'

  2. Webinar recording is now available for all those who were unable to attend.

  3. First published.