44 AIR POWER 201721 ST CENTURY PARTNERSHIPS
21 ST CENTURY PARTNERSHIPSof the Department for International Trade Defence
and Security Organisation (DIT DSO). Although
this is a relatively new name, the department has
been around for more than half a century.
“It started in 1966. Up until 2008, it was part of
the Ministry of Defence (MOD) as the Defence Exports
Services Organisation (DESO),” Phipson explains.
“It was taken out and put into the Department for
UK Trade and Industry in an effort to consolidate all
of the government’s export support activities.”
STRONG TIES
Despite the move, DIT DSO’s links with the MOD and
armed services remain as strong as ever, with some
40 MOD civilians and uniformed personnel on loan to
the 150-strong department. In addition, there is also
a cadre of First Secretaries for Defence and Security
(FSDS), also taken from the MOD and armed forces,
embedded in about 35 key embassies worldwide.
This helps to keep the necessary expertise on tap, as
Phipson concedes, “It is very difficult to sell military
equipment unless you have got the support of the
relevant armed service – the Royal Air Force (RAF) for
aerospace systems, the Royal Navy for maritime security
and, of course, the British Army for land systems.”
The First Secretaries are predominantly located
in North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia,
and are there to support DIT DSO’s key target market
penetration. Their job, according to Phipson, is to
work – frequently in collaboration with the embassy
defence attaché – to highlight opportunities. “They
are our front-line team that is working to identify
the requirements in-country across all three armed
services that might be of interest to the UK.” As such,
they are key to the five-year rolling plan that DIT
DSO maintains for each of these target countries.COLLABORATIVE EFFORTS
As well as assisting DIT DSO with market research and
customer relationship management, the MOD and
armed services also work closely together when
planning overseas tours. The RAF’s recent tour of
Asia under exercises Eastern Hawk and Eastern
Venture was an impressive self-supporting
deployment of Typhoons and Red Arrows to a
number of countries, containing stopovers that
were carefully chosen to benefit existing DIT DSO
campaigns. One of Phipson’s senior military advisors,
Air Vice-Marshal Nigel Maddox, elaborates, “We
were involved in the planning of the stopovers
from the beginning, because we have that ability
to zoom out, and see a much bigger picture
and, in doing so, join the dots to ensure that we
involve everyone to the best possible effect.”
This is exactly the type of partnership that
was endorsed in the 2015 Strategic Defence and
Security Review when it called for support to
defence exports to become a core MOD task. It
seems to be working well and Phipson is extremely
pleased with the support he gets from the Armed
Services, and the RAF in particular. “The Red Arrows
are a great advertisement for UK capability, and the
men and women of the RAF are some of our best
salespeople.” This is crucial, as the air domain currently
accounts for about 70% of defence exports.DIT DSO’s links with the MOD
and armed services remain as
strong as ever, with some 40
MOD civilians and personnel
on loan to the department
Stephen Phipson and
Harriett Baldwin MP,
Minister for Defence
Procurement, host
Mohammed bin
Zayed bin Sultan
Al-Nahyan, Crown
Prince of Abu Dhabi
and Deputy Supreme
Commander of the
UAE Armed Forces, at
the IDEX exhibition
in Abu Dhabi (PHOTO:
© CROWN COPYRIGHT)