Above: David Armstrong, Group Managing Director, BAE Systems’ Digital Intelligence.
Courtesy BAE Systems
 
The creation of the new business, comprising almost 5,000 people in 16 countries around the world, reflects a growing requirement from customers to gather, process and manage complex data. Digital Intelligence will deliver a greater range of digital capabilities alongside leading cyber, intelligence and security expertise to an extensive portfolio of government, defence and commercial customers around the globe. The business will focus on helping customers from across the company to operate successfully, securely and efficiently in the digital world.

Digital Intelligence incorporates recent strategic acquisitions by BAE Systems, which further enhance the Company’s capabilities in digital, data analytics and space, positioning it to accelerate growth in an evolving market. Acquisitions include: In-Space Missions, a UK company which designs, builds and operates satellites and satellite systems; PPM, a developer and manufacturer of high-end electronics; and data consultancy and digital services company, Techmodal.

 
David Armstrong, Group Managing Director, BAE Systems’ Digital Intelligence business said: “We have some of the very best digital capabilities in the market. By bringing them together into one business, we will bring a greater range of capabilities to our customers and capitalise on market opportunities. We will also be able to offer exciting career development opportunities to the most talented people operating in this sector.”
 
The business will specialise in securely collecting, connecting and understanding complex data, so that customers can make can make near-real time decisions in the most demanding multi domain environments. Existing projects include:

• Developing communication systems which enable military land, air and maritime platforms to communicate with each other to share real-time mission imagery whilst on operations;
• Transforming national Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) technology to prevent crime - the resulting data set involves over 50m ANPR reads per day, with feeds from 11,000 cameras;
• Delivering satellite and communications technology, which is embedded within the operational infrastructure of major broadcasters globally;
• Helping the Royal Navy predict failures on warships before they happen and providing detailed analysis of how to diagnose issues;
• The 2020 In-Space Missions launch of the world’s first commercial satellite ‘rideshare’ service, Faraday;
• Veritas, the product which helps the British Army accurately plan and forecast requirements for equipment and material - significantly improving inventory and fleet management and delivering multi-million-pound savings;
• Working with more than 200 financial institutions worldwide to help protect them against financial crime, fraud and cyber crime;
• Developing a simulation modelling toolkit for passenger and vehicle security screening, which is used to provide the UK’s Department for Transport with a detailed understanding of the impact of different security screening operations at major air and sea ports;
• Helping the Royal Navy transform how it gains insight from vast amounts of disparate data, enabling better decision making; and
• Creating a mixed vendor ‘rainbow team’ in Australia to address integrated cloud and data capabilities in a way that will enable global collaboration within multiple geographies for our customers.