The UK Armed Forces will manage and maintain all its defence equipment with a new artificial intelligence (AI) platform, according to a release from 2 October 2025. This £320m ($430.9m) contract with IBM UK for the Defence Equipment Engineering Asset Management Systems (DEEAMS) will create 100 new highly-skilled jobs in the UK. “This is a major step forward in our commitment to ensuring our military has the very best equipment support available,” noted Luke Pollard, minister for defence readiness and industry. The Labour government is implementing institutional changes across the UK defence structure. The Strategic Defence Review and Defence Industrial Strategy both prized the digital backbone, a focus that is expected to garner much attention and funds in the forthcoming Defence Investment Plan due to be published sometime in the autumn period.