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- Real-time defence analytics transforms decision-making from hindsight to instant action, reducing risk and improving operational outcomes.
- Processing data at the edge cuts latency to microseconds, enabling faster responses to anomalies and mission events.
- Real-time logistics visibility ensures optimal use of resources, even under fiscal and supply constraints.
- Integrating sensor data from diverse sources delivers verified, low-latency intelligence for both routine and critical missions.
- Fast, secure access to structured and unstructured data accelerates research, testing, and capability deployment.
Modern defence operations generate staggering volumes of data, from ISR platforms, autonomous systems, and connected assets across land, sea, air, space, and cyber. Yet too much of this critical information remains underutilized, buried in bottlenecks, legacy systems, or delayed PED cycles. The result is decisions made in hindsight rather than in real time, costing personnel agility, opportunity, and potentially, lives.
The advantage doesn’t lie in collecting more data; it lies in unlocking the right data, faster.
In this blog, I explore how sensor and asset monitoring, edge processing, and multi-source correlation are transforming defence analytics. From passive data collection to real-time insight and proactive mission planning. Enabled by scalable platforms, these capabilities support the MOD’s 2025 Digital Targeting Web ambition, linking sensors, deciders, and effectors for decisive action at the speed of relevance.
Sensor monitoring: Accessing untapped data
Highly trained analysts, using Mark 1 eyeballs and ears for manual intervention, can be better employed for operational effect. Proven software systems enable faster and more efficient ingestion and organization of data, which is essential for defence operations to keep pace with the multiple petabytes of onboard and streaming data generated per platform per mission. The Processing, Exploiting, and Dissemination (PED) cycle is slowed by current systems and bottlenecks, resulting in hindsight rather than insight and missed opportunities.
The ability to process at the edge reduces data transfer times, speeds up responses to anomalies, and provides accurate and timely actionable data, whilst improving resilience. Efficiently processing multi-modal structured data types and leveraging streaming or bulk data pushes can reduce latency to milliseconds or microseconds. With these efficiencies, decisions can be made at the speed of relevance by using more of the data. This supports the 2025 Strategic Defence Review ambition to develop the digital targeting web, linking ‘sensors’, ‘deciders’, and ‘effectors’.
Real-time asset monitoring
The war in Ukraine has highlighted the importance of maximising assets and how grasping the real-time logistics picture is vital to maintaining a combat edge. Understanding the availability and reliability of assets enables prioritised and integrated use for the greatest effect. Long-term sustainability planning sets conditions to win the war across space, air, land, maritime, and cyber domains.
In times of fiscal constraints, stretched resources, and long lead-time components, ‘doing more with what you have’ while also utilising new emerging and off-the-shelf capabilities, is crucial for survival. Combining real-time data with lessons from traditional sources improves decision-making, enabling accurate logistics forecasting and maximising current assets to ‘smart sweat’ them for maximum operational effect.
Multi-source event correlation
Decisions involving kinetic action, risk to life, survival, and achieving the objective often require multi-source correlation before action can be taken, whether defensive or offensive. However, multi-source correlation is also vital for routine tasks. Decisions must take place at the speed of relevance to the situation, which is often dynamic.
Large volumes of data can be difficult to manage, especially when pulled from a variety of sources in different formats. High rates of false positive alerts cause distractions, slowing down the process and masking critical events. Maximising the input from available sensors and sources, conducting rapid analysis and getting a verified output at the lowest latency reduces risk and increases potency — Survival of the fastest.
Research science analytics
Innovation, backed by robust research, development, testing, and evaluation, delivers proven and risk-managed capability. The 2025 SDR focusses on ‘innovation-led’ with the Defence Research Evaluation organisation and UK Defence Innovation organisation under the National Armaments Director. Harnessing existing and developing ways to manage data could be procured under the Rapid Commercial Exploitation approach.
Experience in other markets, as well as defence, has shown that digital twins and data from multiple sources allow detailed analytics to achieve validated results. Legacy systems, large data volumes, and varying formats currently make this analysis time-consuming and slow the pace of innovation. Understanding results, building on success, but learning to fail fast where results are not optimal requires rapid access to validated data to gain the insights needed to iterate and develop. The nature of defence research requires data to be secured and sovereign, protecting IP to maintain a competitive edge.
The fastest database and proven partnership
We develop database solutions optimised for high-velocity data analytics in secure environments. We are a winner of 17 of 18 STAC-M3 speed tests, handling up to 60 million live events per second. Our flexible approach to built-in functions supports a range of languages, including Python. Our KX Academy supports further development of your teams as their use cases develop.
Time series and vector databases optimise query speeds for structured and unstructured data and exploit CPU caches for results up to 100x faster than RAM. As defence demands increase, our solutions can be scaled cost-efficiently, keeping the data secure, without changing ownership.
Partnering with trusted teams, including SRC UK Ltd and SiXworks Ltd, allows us to provide integrated solutions in the defence environment, allowing decision-makers and operational personnel to access validated, secure, and timely data that saves lives and increases efficiency.
Discover deeper insight, intelligent hindsight, and greater foresight. Learn more about KX Aerospace & Defence.
