Rowden Technologies and Isembard today announce a joint effort to scale sovereign UK manufacturing of advanced sensing systems for national security.

The collaboration forms part of Rowden’s multi-million-pound investment in expanding sovereign production of advanced sensing systems. Over the next 12 months, Rowden will create around 100 highly skilled roles across the Southwest, with Isembard manufacturing precision-engineered components to support Rowden’s growing Magos product line - a family of sensing systems developed for use across government, defence, and national infrastructure.

Bringing together Rowden’s system design, integration, and in-house manufacturing expertise with Isembard’s MasonOS-driven, software-defined production facilities, the collaboration strengthens the UK’s industrial base and export competitiveness. 

It links advanced system design directly to industrial output - demonstrating how British engineering can deliver frontier technologies with a clear path to export at pace and scale, competitively and securely.

The engineering initiative integrates Rowden’s sensing systems - including RF decoy platforms for tactical deception operations - with Isembard’s software-defined factories, capable of rapidly prototyping, qualifying, and mass-producing complex metallic assemblies, heat sinks, and CNC components for sensing payloads. This enables a faster transition from low-volume prototyping for early trials to high-volume production for operational deployment.

Applying modern engineering and manufacturing techniques proven in the commercial sector to mission-critical technology development, the approach compresses traditional industrial timelines. It allows the UK to deliver scalable, modular sensing and deception systems efficiently, cost-effectively, and entirely within a sovereign supply chain.

It also lays the foundation for assured UK variants of next-generation sensing systems - a critical subsector designed, built, and qualified domestically to meet national and allied mission needs.

Jake Reynolds, VP Product, Rowden Technologies: “This marks an exciting expansion of our supply chain, built around shared engineering ambition and outstanding British engineering talent. Working with innovative businesses like Isembard, we’re creating a production base capable of delivering assured UK variants of critical sensing systems - a real step forward in sovereign capability that can be exported and deliver meaningful operational value to users in Europe and beyond.”

Andrew Kramer, Strategic Deployments, Isembard: “Industrial strength is national strength. By combining MasonOS-driven factories with Rowden’s world-class mission systems, we can turn years into days and prototypes into production – here in Britain. This partnership delivers sovereign capacity now and lays the foundation to export British engineering at scale.”

Programme Scope and Milestones

This will include:

• Two-week hardware iteration cycles, taking precision-engineered prototypes from concept to integrated product solutions in under six months - compressing traditional hardware timelines and enabling rapid delivery of operational capability;

• Investment in new UK production lines, automation, and advanced test and quality-assurance infrastructure aligned with ISO and AS certification pathways;

• Expansion of skilled engineering and technician roles across the Southwest, including machining, assembly, quality, automation, and apprenticeship routes;

• A scalable manufacturing model supporting export-ready and assured UK variants of sensing and compute systems for defence and national security missions.