What specific “sovereign, secure technology” in your stack can’t be sourced from global suppliers?
It’s not about hardware tech that we focus on – we’re building a sovereign data intelligence platform, and we’re not vendor specific. For us, sovereignty isn’t about a single component you “can’t buy globally”, it’s about assured control of the technologies that matter most to operational security. The sovereign elements in our stack are the secure data infrastructure, analytics pipeline and the way we manage sensitive data throughout the system.
How does Sir Jeremy Fleming’s intelligence background directly influence your product roadmap and client trust?
Sir Jeremy’s appointment marks a significant milestone in StirlingX’s mission to deliver secure, advanced drone and data analytics technologies for defence, critical infrastructure, and commercial applications. Through his leadership in national security and cyber strategy, he will guide the company as it scales secure, UK-manufactured technology for domestic and allied markets.
You work with National Grid – what’s one operational task your drones do that manual inspection can’t?
StirlingX uses advanced BVLOS-verified drone operations to survey long linear routes far more efficiently than traditional ground or helicopter methods.
Our advanced regulatory permissions dramatically shortens survey timeframes – what previously took weeks can now be completed in days.
Fewer site visits and reduced need for multiple landing zones make the process significantly more cost-effective for infrastructure owners.
How does your data intelligence platform turn raw drone footage into actionable decisions for infrastructure clients?
Our platform transforms raw sensor data into operational intelligence through a secure, end-to-end processing pipeline. As data arrives from autonomous capture systems, it’s automatically structured, geo-referenced and analysed through models that detect change, identify anomalies and surface emerging risks.
This capability is driven by the UK’s most talented software and machine-learning engineers, whose expertise in secure, resilient geospatial analytics sits at the core of how we turn complex data into clear, actionable insight for infrastructure operators.
Which international market presents the biggest immediate growth opportunity for your sovereign tech?
While we are engaging with allied partners internationally, our immediate priority and focus remains the UK.
The term “sovereign technology” is often used, but what does it mean operationally for a client like National Grid? Does it mean your data never leaves UK servers, that your hardware supply chain is vetted, or that you can guarantee no foreign code is in your stack? What is the specific guarantee?
At StirlingX we think of sovereign technology in operational terms, not slogans. For our critical national infrastructure and defence customers, sovereignty ultimately translates into Security, Resilience and Robustness across every component of the system, from the platforms collecting data, through to the digital services and dataflows that support analytics operations.
It’s important to be honest about what sovereignty is not. In a modern technology stack, it is neither feasible nor meaningful to claim that no component originated abroad, or that no open-source library written 20 years ago finds its way into the code. Everything from batteries and motors to the linear-algebra libraries behind AI ultimately have global origins.
Specifically, we consider sovereignty to be about control of operationally sensitive data, assured supply and support chains, Security-by-design, and Operational resilience.
Sovereignty isn’t about chasing a theoretical “zero foreign input” claim, it’s about ensuring the system remains secure, robust, and resilient for the UK.
With Sir Jeremy Fleming as Chairman, how is his experience shaping your approach to systemic security risks—beyond just encrypting data links—such as protecting your own software development lifecycle from sophisticated threats?
Sir Jeremy’s experience reinforces that security must be systemic, not just encryption. We’re bringing in world-leading experts to make StirlingX secure-by-design across our technology and our business operations from the software development lifecycle to supply-chain assurance and governance.
The real shift is cultural: resilience and security aren’t “features” we bolt on. They shape our engineering choices, our vendor decisions, and our business operations from day one.
Sir Jeremy’s background helps us see those systemic risks clearly and respond with the level of seriousness they deserve.
You mention “defence” sectors. What is the primary technical hurdle in adapting commercial infrastructure monitoring drones for military-grade use cases, and how are you bridging that gap?
The primary hurdle is that defence environments demand far greater resilience, assurance and contested-environment performance than most commercial platforms are designed for. Our approach is to rapidly transition the latest commercial advances in autonomy, sensing and AI into defence-ready systems by hardening them for counter-UAS threats, jamming, security and mission assurance.
In short, we integrate the speed of commercial innovation with the robustness that defence operations require.
Is StirlingX’s ultimate product the drone-as-a-service, the data intelligence platform, or the secure, sovereign hardware/software stack itself? Where will you make most of your revenue in 5 years?
StirlingX is deliberately architected so the drone systems, secure data infrastructure, and analytics layer can each stand alone or operate end-to-end depending on the customer. Some clients will value the full intelligence pipeline, others will focus on high-fidelity, sovereign data capture, and we’re already seeing demand across both. In five years, we expect substantial revenue across the whole capability, rather than a single product dominating.
Scaling from individual projects to monitoring a nationwide infrastructure network (e.g., the entire National Grid) is a massive challenge. What is the biggest bottleneck: regulatory approval for BVLOS flights, the AI’s ability to autonomously detect anomalies, or the physical logistics of deploying and maintaining a drone fleet at that scale?
Regulatory approval for BVLOS is a major factor, and we invest a lot of effort across technology, operations and regulatory engagement to move that forward responsibly.
But the real bottleneck is the end-to-end engineering cycle. The challenge isn’t just in building the platforms, autonomy and data analytics, but also rigorously testing, validating and operationalising them at national scale. Scaling is ultimately about proving capability, not just developing it.
