24.11.2025
The workforce flightpath
The UK’s 2025 Strategic Defence Review (SDR) reset the expectations of what defence forces and their industries must deliver to keep the nation resilient and technologically competitive. Shaped by lessons from Ukraine, rapid advances in AI, automation, and quantum technologies, as well as stark new avenues of threat, the SDR signals an urgent pivot to “war-fighting readiness” and a whole-of-society approach to national security.
At its heart lies a recognition that skills, talent, and agility within the workforce are now mission-critical. The UK aerospace and defence industry is undergoing a seismic shift powered by AI, automation, and the urgent drive for sustainable flight. But while the technology is accelerating at Mach speed, the workforce isn’t keeping pace.
Aerospace and defence has become a prime hunting ground for competitor industries.
Morson Edge isn’t here to comment from the sidelines. We’re supplying, developing, and futureproofing the specialist talent that keeps the sector airborne. From advanced propulsion to digital twin engineering, we’re helping clients solve productivity challenges through people, not theory. Because the future of aerospace and defence won’t wait for the workforce to catch up, it needs partners ready to lead from the sharp end.
Context and challenge: A perfect talent storm
The aerospace and defence sector is experiencing an acute talent crisis as attrition rates rise and innovative, digitally driven industries aggressively recruit its most valuable employees. Recent data reveals that aerospace and defence must grow headcount by 30% in the next five years to keep pace with industry demands, yet the sector endures attrition rates of nearly 15% twice the U.S. average and significantly higher than comparable UK and European sectors.
Aerospace and defence remains a global powerhouse with a forecast pipeline of growth, but its long R&D cycles, risk-averse culture, and slower pace of digital transformation risk making it less attractive to ambitious, change-driven talent. Engineers, digital specialists, and project leaders are being “picked off” by tech giants, e-mobility innovators, and green energy disruptors industries offering faster career progression, agility, and more immediate impact.
The sector also faces a critical demographic crunch, with up to 25% of the workforce nearing retirement and insufficient pipelines to backfill digital, technical, and project management roles.
A closer look reveals a worrying paradox. While global aerospace and defence headcounts must rise dramatically, 76% of employers report persistent difficulty finding engineers, and over half can’t fill skilled trades or digital project roles. Meanwhile, R&D investment often exceeding 8% of sales struggles to translate into talent attraction when weighed against the agility of adjacent industries.
The result? Aerospace and defence has become a prime hunting ground for competitors. Young engineers, data scientists, and experienced programme managers long the sector’s backbone are being lured away by industries promising bold missions, digital-first cultures, and faster feedback loops.
A workforce outpaced
UK defence companies report that talent scarcity is now the single largest barrier to growth.
Shortages are particularly acute in:
- Digital, data, and AI engineering as predictive analytics, autonomy, and digital warfighting become operationally critical.
- Cybersecurity and quantum engineering with global defence investment in quantum-secure communications and navigation set to exceed $25 billion by 2030.
- Traditional skilled trades from high-spec fabrication and naval architecture to electronic assembly where ageing workforces and underinvestment are eroding delivery capability.
Projects like Dreadnought submarines illustrate the cost: when experienced fabricators or systems integrators retire, capability gaps can take years and millions to rebuild.
Aerospace and defence now face a dual-front challenge competing for digital talent while protecting and modernising traditional engineering skills that underpin capability.
While the challenge is stark, the opportunity is immense. Digital twins, AI-driven design, and automation are creating new, hybrid roles at pace ones that fuse technical mastery with digital fluency.
Emerging in the next five years:
- Autonomous Systems Engineers designing AI-powered flight systems for both civilian and military applications.
- Sustainable Aviation Specialists scaling hydrogen, biofuel, and electric propulsion.
- Digital Twin and Predictive Maintenance Analysts optimising performance and lifespan through real-time data.
- Space Systems Engineers bridging aerospace and orbital logistics as the commercial space economy expands.
These roles demand cross-disciplinary fluency blending data analytics, mechanical systems, and sustainability principles and they’re emerging faster than traditional training pipelines can adapt.
These are not distant prospects; they are here now. And they demand a new approach to workforce planning.
Want more and a glimpse into the future of aerospace and defence? It’s all in our latest whitepaper. Keep reading below.
