Business Hour
This Business Hour, Phil Goodwin explains how Samlesbury became home of The National Cyber Force
The National Cyber Force, a new branch of the military, is gearing up to fight battles in cyber space from the fields of Lancashire. Its presence is expected to bring a high-tech renaissance to the region.
The battle to win the headquarters of the UK’s National Cyber Force (NCF) has been quietly fought out of the public eye for the past 12 months.
Samlesbury, in the Ribble Valley, saw off stiff competition from Manchester, the home of GCHQ’s northern office, to become the site of the UK’s headquarters for military operations in cyber space against nation states, terrorists and criminals.
The arrival of the NCF brings with it an investment of £5bn to the Lancashire economy, the largest seen in the area for 50 years.
By 2023, more than 3,000 people will be working at the NCF headquarters, which will be built on land on the former Samlesbury Aerodrome, alongside BAE Systems’ aircraft components site.
The UK has been conducting cyber operations since at least 2010, but the NCF marks a step-change in the UK’s response to hostile state hacking, terrorism and high-tech criminals.
Cyber is viewed, along with space, as the next military domain, and the NCF will go beyond defending against cyber attacks to using hacking techniques to undermine adversaries.
Under the control of the Ministry of Defence’s (MoD’s) Strategic Command, the NCF will draw its staff from the MoD, GCHQ, the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) and the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) at Porton Down.
As many as 2,000 jobs are likely to be created in the region, said Sarah Kemp, CEO of Lancashire Local Enterprise Partnership. She has no doubt that the NCF will encourage high-tech businesses to move to the area, creating a corridor of expertise that could run from Manchester to Lancaster.
“It will be a centre of gravity, attracting business in digital technology, cyber defence and security,” she said.
Ministers believe the NCF could transform Samlesbury in the same way that GCHQ transformed the small town of Cheltenham in 1951. Internally, the cyber force headquarters is known as “GCHQ2”, reflecting the ambition and scale of the operation.
Building work on the NCF campus is due to start next year. Its exact location is being kept under wraps, but the Salmesbury Aerospace Enterprise Zone, which has a capacity of one million square feet, is the likely candidate.
It is already home to BAE Systems, which manufactures parts for military aircraft, including the Eurofighter Typhoon, the BAE Academy for Skills & Knowledge (ASK), which trains 200 apprenticeships a year and a solar power plant.
An Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre, which will offer businesses access to a research and development team, is also being developed on the site, with the backing of Sheffield University and a £20m grant from Lancashire Local Enterprise partnership.
Since January 2021, a small coterie of local councillors and academics have been lobbying intensively to persuade the Ministry of Defence to choose Samlesbury as the base for the National Cyber Force.
The bid had political support from local MPs, including the Speaker of the House of Commons, Lindsay Hoyle, and his deputy, Nigel Evans, Conservative MP for the Ribble Valley.
Ben Wallace, secretary of state for defence, who announced the win for Samlesbury, represents Lancashire’s Wyre and Preston North constituency.
For Westminster, the decision represents a concrete outcome for the government’s “levelling up” policy and a boost for the growth of a “northern powerhouse”.
One of the attractions for the NCF is the expertise of the area’s universities, including Lancaster University, which has won recognition for its work on cyber security. The university’s cyber masters programme, its academic centre for excellence for cyber education and academic centre for excellence for cyber research, have each been accredited by GHCQ’s National Cyber Security Centre.
Dion Williams, associate dean for enterprise engagement at Lancaster, said there are huge opportunities for research collaborations between the NCF and universities in the region.
Lancaster, for example, is working with Manchester and Salford universities on a research partnership sponsored by GCHQ.
It is also the lead academic partner in a Digital Innovation and Security Hub (DISH). Housed in the same building as GCHQ’s Manchester headquarters, DISH aims to enable academics, entrepreneurs and business to collaborate on innovate digital and cyber security projects.
One of the NCF’s stated aims is to hire employees with a diverse range of backgrounds. The University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN), which offers a range of courses in digital technology and computer networks, believes it can play a key role in developing the skills of young people.
It runs a programme that brings young people into medicine through an apprenticeship scheme that combines work and study that people can follow at their own pace. That brings in young people from communities in Preston, Blackburn, Burnley and further north. StJohn Crean, pro-vice chancellor of UCLAN, believes a similar programme could bring more young people into high-tech careers at the NCF. “We, as a university, are well positioned,” he said.
The NCF will employ military personnel, but the majority of jobs will go to civilians from Lancashire and elsewhere in the country.
The arrival of the NCF is expected to attract more high-tech businesses to the region. The Lancashire Enterprise Partnership received its first enquiries from interested organisations on the day the NCF plan was announced.
The £5bn investment for the NCF comes alongside other development projects in the region, including investment in transport infrastructure and a government sponsored project to build 9,000 homes.
