Partnering with major defence primes can be one of the fastest routes into NATO and allied defence markets – but it comes with unique challenges. Defence primes bring scale, credibility, and access, yet they operate very differently from venture-backed startups. Understanding how to navigate these partnerships effectively can mean the difference between rapid market adoption and costly missteps.

To kick off the NIF’s “DSR Playbook” webinar series John Ridge, Chief Adoption Officer at the NIF and Ross Hilditch, Head of UK Product & Engineering at Tekever discussed key considerations and common pitfalls of partnering with defence primes, and shared practical tips on how to bridge the two worlds.

Highlights include:

Why work with defence primes?

Defence primes exist for a reason: they are exceptionally good at delivering large, complex, high-risk programmes. Building an aircraft carrier requires structural competence and organisational depth that only established primes possess. Their strengths are real and enduring.

For startups and scaleups, primes can offer:

• Market access through long-standing customer relationships with governments and armed forces
• Credibility and trust in regulated defence markets where track record matters
• Capability to manage complexity, safety, and regulatory compliance at scale
• Integration expertise for deployment across large programmes

For many startups, primes represent a vital route to adoption – especially where direct government contracting is difficult or where integration into larger systems is required.

The core challenge: different operating models

A recurring theme in prime-startup partnerships is that the two parties often move at very different tempos. This isn’t a failure on either side but a fundamental difference in how the organisations are built.

Startups are valued for speed, agility, rapid iteration, and innovation at the frontier. Primes, however, are built around risk management, process and assurance, compliance and documentation, and long procurement cycles.

The result is a fundamental tension: the very things that make primes strong – rigorous processes, comprehensive risk management, deep institutional knowledge – can feel like friction to startups. These are two sides of the same coin. The challenge is navigating this tension without losing the innovative edge that made the partnership attractive in the first place.

Common challenges when partnering with primes

1. Compliance overhead comes fast

Startups are often surprised by the volume of requirements that arrive early in the partnership process. These include cyber security standards, financial stability evidence, export controls, design assurance and safety regulation, and extensive contracting documentation.

This can feel burdensome, but it’s important to understand that much of this is driven by customer and regulatory flow-down requirements, not the prime itself. Many requirements originate with end customers and the regulatory environment. Standards exist for good reasons: demonstrating safety, ensuring interoperability, meeting export controls.

Once you get through the initial documentation requirements, the burden becomes more manageable. The key is to expect this early and plan internal capacity for it.

2. Intellectual property can become complex

Defence partnerships require clarity on IP ownership from the outset. IP issues can become a significant burden if not understood and addressed early.

Key concepts to understand upfront include background IP (what you bring into the partnership), foreground IP (what is developed during the contract), and joint IP (which can arise more easily than expected, even from discussions).

Be crystal clear about what your ‘special sauce’ is and how you’re going to protect it. Develop a distilled view of what makes your organisation and solution unique. Be explicit in contracts and get specialist advice early – this is not an area to learn through mistakes.

3. Security culture is different

Companies entering defence from civilian markets often find the security environment restrictive. There’s less openness, limited information sharing, constraints on publicity and social media, and the reality that adversaries are actively interested in your work.

The challenge is building a defence-ready security mindset without losing the collaborative energy that drives innovation. Primes can be valuable sources of guidance on these issues – don’t hesitate to seek their expertise.

4. Visibility to the end customer can be hard

In many prime-led programmes, startups risk becoming an invisible supplier. The prime manages the customer relationship, and the startup’s direct connection to operational requirements can become attenuated.

This is where contract structure matters. Push for early demonstrations, prototype engagement, and user feedback loops wherever possible. Work demonstrations into contracts when you can. Agile methodologies with early demonstrations enable customer feedback and end-user engagement from the start.

Perfection is the enemy of progress – build programs with touchpoints throughout the development cycle. What we’re seeing in Ukraine reinforces this: the real value lies in rapidly closing capability gaps, not in pursuing theoretical perfection. Closing the loop with the operator is critical.

5. Bandwidth inside primes is often the real bottleneck

Slow responses from primes are often not a lack of interest – they’re a lack of time. A lot of the challenge within a prime is simply bandwidth constraints.

If someone hasn’t responded, it’s rarely personal – it’s usually a capacity issue. Be patient and persistent. Successful partnerships often depend on finding a person inside the prime who has the mandate, the network, and the bandwidth to champion your solution.

Making prime partnerships work

Find the champion

Look for people with specific roles focused on innovation partnerships: innovation lead, tech scouting, partnership director, or similar roles. Different companies have different appetites for startup partnerships – identify primes with particularly collaborative cultures.

Be clear about your “moat”

Know what truly differentiates your company: data advantage, unique IP, operational insight, manufacturing edge, or speed of iteration. Understand your technology moat – what’s stopping others from catching up with you in the next two years?

This clarity is essential not just for protecting your position but for articulating value to potential partners.

Be open about multi-prime engagement

Working with multiple primes simultaneously is possible – but secrecy creates risk. Be upfront early so all parties can manage expectations and their own risk appropriately. Everyone understands that startups need to maximise opportunities. Transparency allows for better partnership management. Most primes won’t force exclusivity if you’re honest from the beginning.

Focus on the problem, not just the technology

Perhaps the strongest takeaway is the importance of product discipline. Understand the operational use case. Know the military constraints. Frame your value clearly. Avoid “technology for technology’s sake.”

Be clear about the problem you’re solving and the value you’re bringing to end users. Unless you’re addressing a valued problem, it’s hard to gain traction. Nothing turns off defence customers or primes faster than a naïve solution that doesn’t survive first contact with operational reality.

The changing landscape

The defence ecosystem is changing rapidly. Traditional 10-15 year procurement cycles are no longer sufficient, and there is growing appetite for more agile, iterative capability delivery. Ukraine has demonstrated that we need to iterate faster, and different procurement modes are part and parcel of that shift.

The technology landscape has changed massively over the past decade. There’s been a democratisation of technologies previously behind closed doors, making it easier to deliver more capability than was possible ten years ago. Dual-use contexts have shifted. Secure supply chains can now be established in ways that weren’t previously possible.

For startups and scaleups, this creates unprecedented opportunities. The defence industry needs both primes and startups. Primes bring the organisational depth and risk management capabilities essential for complex systems. Startups bring innovation, agility, and fresh approaches to persistent problems.

Success in this environment requires preparation, patience, and clarity on value, compliance, and collaboration. The function that ultimately matters is simple: what capability can you deliver, and in what timeframe? For the NATO Innovation Fund’s portfolio companies, approaching prime partnerships strategically – protecting core IP, understanding the regulatory landscape, demonstrating value early and often, and building relationships based on transparency and mutual benefit – is essential to turning opportunity into impact.