Sustaining the UK’s Defence Effort: Contractor Support to Operations Market Dynamics

Contractor support to operations (CSO) has become an essential component of the ability to both deploy and sustain the UK’s military instrument. Contractors provide non-offensive, in-theatre commercial services for deployed UK operations in the fields of equipment support, people support, and static and mobile protection/guarding.

The report examines the key drivers of the interactions between the demand and supply side of the CSO market, which will not only determine the availability, quality, sustainability, affordability and commercial viability of CSO services, but also fundamentally affect the UK’s ability to ensure the security of its citizens and its influence on the global stage.

Both public and private CSO stakeholders have an intrinsic need for an in-depth understanding of the future dynamics of the CSO market, which are the cornerstones of their professional environments and a crucial determinant of the UK’s defence effort.

This Whitehall Report assesses the specifics of the CSO market structure, identifies the private and public CSO market actors, examines the key drivers of the future dynamics of the CSO market and describes major implications of these for CSO market actors.