What’s in a name? From 'Unmanned Experts' to 'ISR, Intelligence and Cyber'
17 May 21
ISR, Intelligence and Cyber OBU
BY Emma Harper-Bulgin
If it seems like only a few months since the previous ISR Head of Division, Paul Rolfe was writing about the evolution of the UMIX team as we renamed to ISR division (ISRD) – that’s because it was! Yet here we are, writing about evolving again….. so why?
Quite simply, it’s down to growth, at every stage; overall as a company, enlargement as an operational business unit and expansion as a division within that unit have meant that to stay the same would have made us an unwieldy entity. Our new name isn’t a ‘re-brand’, it is part of a wider step change in the Inzpire footprint as the company expands to meet evolving international defence needs.
What’s changed and why?
Since April 2020, Inzpire’s capabilities have been delivered through four distinct areas of operation known as operational business units or ‘OBU’s, with the intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance division part of the collective training OBU alongside the training services, collective training, and intelligence and cyber divisions. Whilst the ISR division has obvious overlap with all these areas and our relationship with the other three divisions has been mutually beneficial, the growth taking place in the collective training OBU has necessitated a new approach to its structure (prescient in light of the themes highlighted in the recent integrated review). At the same time, we increasingly see that ISR and intelligence and cyber related developments have to be considered together. The often symbiotic and interrelated nature of these areas of interest meant that these two divisions were perfectly aligned to work together as our own OBU; therefore, in Apr 21 the fifth OBU – ISR, Intelligence and Cyber, also known as ‘I2C’ – was stood up, with Sophie Paul at the helm.
The announcement of ISR division forming half of a new OBU also provides a great opportunity to highlight our own recent divisional changes; Paul Rolfe recently left to pursue his own business venture making cider (but remains a trusted associate of the team), which meant Andy Bain, drawing on his years of experience, was perfectly positioned to step up into the Head of Division role, with Dan Marshall becoming his deputy. Together they are leading a team who between them have over 35,000 operational flying hours across a range of manned and unmanned platforms.
Dan Marshall, pictured in 2019 delivering training to UK military personnel
As the newest member of the team, I’m excited to be a part this expansion and energised to be involved in the new ventures taking flight soon whilst overall we continue to provide high end training, managed operational and technical consultancy services to all our customers. What Paul Rolfe wrote in July 20 still rings true; the ISRD capabilities span the entire ISR domain, from initial training provision to collection, tasking, and integrating multi-domain ISR concepts, interlinking across different teams within the business where necessary to ensure we are meeting our customers’ specific needs on an increasingly international level.
So in summary, from UMEX to UMIX to ISRD to I2C, our division has widened its focus since formation in 2014 to encompass proficiency across a huge variety of ISR concepts; what hasn’t changed throughout is our dedication to our customers and our wish to provide success through excellence in terms of ISR capability consultancy, ISR training services and managed ISR services. Paraphrasing a well-known catchphrase, ‘the future’s bright, the future’s orange...and black’.
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