REG-Defence Holdings Plc: Operational Update: Defence Holdings Strengthens Position at the Centre of Allied Defence Innovation

Defence HoldingsAnnouncement

Today 07:02

The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to
constitute inside information stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulation
(EU) No. 596/2014, as retained as part of the law of England and Wales. Upon
the publication of this announcement via the Regulatory Information Service,
this inside information is now considered to be in the public domain.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

20 October 2025

London, UK

Defence Holdings PLC

(“Defence Holdings” or the “Company”)

Operational Update: Defence Holdings Strengthens Position at the Centre of
Allied Defence Innovation

Defence Holdings PLC (LSE: ALRT), the UK-listed defence technology group,
today issues a business update highlighting material progress across product
development and partner collaboration, marking rapid delivery against its
five-year plan and strong alignment with the priorities of the UK’s
Strategic Defence Review (SDR25).

In under twelve months since publishing its roadmap, Defence Holdings has
advanced from strategy to execution, converting intent into deployable
capability. Multiple sovereign-AI products are in development and soon to be
in deployment, with collaboration deepening across both government and
industry. The Company is now engaged with leading global technology providers
and allied defence stakeholders to co-develop critical systems that strengthen
national resilience and decision advantage across domains.

This growing momentum reflects not only Defence Holdings’ ability to deliver
at pace, but also the increasing inbound engagement from technology, defence,
and national-security communities seeking the Company’s expertise to help
address complex, real-world capability challenges.

 

Highlights

·       Defence Holdings has built a world-class delivery team and an
expanding portfolio of sovereign-AI capabilities. The Company is now being
engaged directly by the most senior UK defence leaders and NATO-aligned
programmes to address some of the most complex challenges in information
dominance, interoperability, and decision support.


·       Project Ixian is progressing toward commercialisation following
validation with UK defence stakeholders, while the Company’s second
sovereign-AI product is in active co-development with a new hyperscale
partner. The software-led, AI-enabled capability extends the value of existing
hardware by performing time-critical inference at the edge, fusing
multi-sensor data to improve identification confidence, accelerate response
cycles, and reduce operational risk.
 

·       Defence Holdings is now collaborating at the highest echelons
of the UK defence and national-security community, as well as within NATO
frameworks, including representation in the Coalition of the Willing. The
Company has been formally recognised by senior defence leadership as a “Tier
1 asset” within the UK’s innovation ecosystem, underscoring its growing
role as a trusted partner in the delivery of sovereign capability.
 

·       With momentum building across multiple programmes, Defence
Holdings is significantly expanding its senior leadership team to support
rapid growth and delivery at scale. Recruitment is under way for key executive
roles, including Chief Operating Officer, to strengthen operational oversight
and programme execution as the Company enters its next phase of institutional
maturity. The expansion builds on the foundation established under the
Chairmanship of General Lord Houghton of Richmond GCB CBE DL.
 

·       The Company continues to execute its strategy with financial
discipline, maintaining a robust balance sheet and significant headroom to
support ongoing delivery. Capital deployment remains tightly aligned to
programme milestones, ensuring growth is driven by validated demand rather
than speculative expansion.

 

Executing at Pace            
             

Defence Holdings was founded to build sovereign software for defence and
national security, rapidly, responsibly, and at scale.

The Company’s strategy is now translating into operational capability across
multiple domains.Since launching its first product, Project Ixian, at DSEI
2025, Defence Holdings has progressed from initial validation to a portfolio
of sovereign-AI programmes designed to enhance information resilience and
decision advantage at the edge.

Each programme is advancing through active collaboration with the UK Ministry
of Defence, allied governments, and global technology partners. Development of
a second sovereign-AI product is now under way, focused on AI-enabled
decision-making at the edge and built in partnership with a major global
hyperscale provider.

This engagement is expected to expand into a broader collaboration, further
strengthening Defence Holdings’ role as a bridge between sovereign software
innovation and the world’s most advanced technology infrastructure. Further
updates on this expanded relationship are expected in the coming weeks.

Together, these products form the foundation of a scalable, interoperable
software suite aligned with the UK’s Strategic Defence Review (SDR25).
Additional sovereign-AI programmes are already in progress, extending from
frontline decision-support to national resilience systems and force-enablement
technologies, ensuring capability is delivered where people and missions
depend on it most.

Partnerships & Positioning:

The Company’s collaboration model is proving highly effective. Defence
Holdings is now actively engaged across multiple sovereign-AI programmes,
participating in integration workshops and technical sprints alongside global
technology companies, UK Government stakeholders, and allied institutions.

This marks a decisive shift, from partnership in principle to collaboration in
delivery, and reflects a broader dynamic: Defence Holdings being actively
pulled into the centre of the UK defence and technology community.

Google Cloud: Hyperscale Foundation for Sovereign Software

In October, Google Cloud was confirmed as the hyperscale provider for Project
Ixian, Defence Holdings’ inaugural sovereign-AI product focused on
information integrity, resilience, and decision advantage.

Built on Google Distributed Cloud Air-Gapped, Ixian meets the highest
standards of security and data residency, combining sovereign control with
hyperscale performance.

This collaboration anchors Defence Holdings’ model: sovereign software,
powered by allied hyperscale infrastructure, delivered at speed. Project Ixian
is moving through the final stages with a clear pathway to operational
deployment.

NVIDIA: Accelerating Edge AI Performance

Defence Holdings and Whitespace participated in technical briefings at
NVIDIA’s Las Vegas showcase, previewing the new DGX Spark platform, one of
only 50 systems distributed under NVIDIA’s seed programme for its strategic
partners in defence and national security.

Defence Holdings will gain access to its own DGX Spark system to benchmark and
optimise sovereign-AI workloads for edge environments and autonomous
platforms.

Other early recipients include NASA, Lockheed Martin, and leading AI research
institutions, positioning Defence Technologies among a select group testing
next-generation AI compute for mission-critical use.

Oracle: Showcasing Collaborative Capabilities at Oracle AI World

At the invitation of Oracle, Defence Technologies attended Oracle AI World
2025 in Las Vegas for a series of closed-door sessions with Oracle’s UK and
global defence and national-security leadership.

These discussions form part of a growing collaboration exploring how Defence
Technologies’ sovereign-AI software can operate natively on Oracle’s
hyperscale infrastructure to deliver secure, deployable capability across
allied missions.

Leadership & Organisational Growth

Defence Holdings is expanding its leadership, engineering, and delivery teams
as the Company moves into its next phase of execution. Recruitment is under
way for key senior roles, including a Chief Operating Officer, to ensure the
Company can scale operations in line with growing customer engagement and
programme delivery.
 

This strengthened structure reflects the transition from product development
to operational deployment, embedding Defence Holdings’ technologies directly
within end-user environments and ensuring that delivery keeps pace with
demand.

 

Summary            
 

Defence Holdings now enters a new phase of execution and expansion. The
foundation is built.  sovereign-AI products validated, partnerships with
global technology leaders established, and credibility within defence and
national-security institutions secured. The next phase is about scale:
embedding capability across programmes, accelerating delivery with allied
partners, and realising the full commercial and strategic value of the
platform the Company has created.

Defence Holdings remains one of the few listed companies positioned to capture
this generational opportunity, combining sovereign design, hyperscale
integration, and commercial agility.

 

Andrew McCartney, Chief Technology Officer of Defence Holdings, commented:
 

“In under a year, we’ve moved from concept to capability. Defence Holdings
is now delivering sovereign software that addresses real operational needs.
Software that’s deployable, scalable, and aligned with allied
infrastructure. The most considerable change in recent months is the level of
engagement. We’re no longer presenting ideas from the outside; we’re being
brought into the core of defence transformation, working directly with those
shaping the UK’s and NATO’s digital operating model. That shift reflects
disciplined execution, credible delivery, and the calibre of the team driving
it.
 

Our focus now is on scale - expanding our engineering capacity, deepening
collaboration with hyperscalers, and embedding our technology into live
defence environments to strengthen national resilience and operational
advantage for the United Kingdom and its allies.”

 

Exercise of Warrants            
 

The Company has received notices from warrant holders to exercise warrants
over a total of 96,399,279 ordinary shares of £0.001 each in the Company
(“Ordinary Shares”). Accordingly, the Company will issue 96,399,279 new
Ordinary Shares to warrant holders. Of these, 62,153,126 Ordinary Shares will
be issued to a single warrant holder and 34,246,153 Ordinary Shares to
another, pursuant to the exercise of their warrants.

Admission and Total Voting Rights

Application will be made for the 96,399,279 new Ordinary Shares, which will
rank pari passu with the existing Ordinary Shares in issue, to be admitted to
trading on the London Stock Exchange Main Market (“Admission”). Dealings
are expected to commence on or around 23 October 2025.

Following Admission, the Company’s total issued and voting share capital
will consist of 2,381,792,946 Ordinary Shares. The Company does not hold any
ordinary shares in treasury. Therefore, the above figure may be used by
shareholders in the Company as the denominator for the calculation by which
they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a
change to their interest in, the share capital of the Company under the
FCA’s Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules.

 

ENDS

About Defence Holdings PLC

Defence Holdings PLC (LSE: ALRT) is a leading listed software-led defence
company, focused on developing sovereign defence capabilities for the digital
age. The Company's five-year strategic plan, announced in June 2025, positions
it to become a leading force in software-first defence solutions.

Website:  (http://www.defencetechnologies.com/)www.defencetechnologies.com

Media Enquiries            
Director, Brian Stockbridge
Defence Holdings PLC
Tel: +44 (0)20 3855 5551 · Email: press@defencetechnologies.com

 

 



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