Inzpire

Inzpire started in Lincoln in 2005 when three ex-military colleagues put 300 pounds into a company. It grew to close to 300 staff and roughly 40 million pounds of annual turnover before QinetiQ bought 85 percent of it in 2018 for 23.5 million pounds, taking full ownership over the following two years. It now trades as a wholly owned subsidiary of the QinetiQ Group but keeps its own brand, its own site and its own hiring pipeline out of the Royal Navy, British Army and Royal Air Force. That recruiting model is the point of the business. Its people are former fast jet and helicopter aircrew, intelligence specialists, tactical datalink experts and front-line ground personnel, and the company sells that experience as much as it sells equipment.

The product side rests on GECO, a tablet-based mission support system that has been in UK service since 2009 and runs on more than 22 platforms. GECO covers the whole military air mission cycle, from planning and briefing on the ground through in-flight situational awareness and electronic flight bag functions to post-mission debrief. It is safety assured, integrates with allied mission planning systems and platform avionics, and has been configured for fast jets, helicopters, multi-engine aircraft and uncrewed systems. Because it runs on ruggedized commercial hardware it works as a low-cost avionics upgrade for aircraft that would otherwise need a full cockpit modification.

Two simulator products sit alongside it. CASE JTAC is a deployable mixed reality trainer for joint terminal attack controllers, accredited by the UK MOD for Types 1, 2 and 3 controls, and it is also used by forward air controllers, joint forward observers, fire support teams and headquarters staff. CASE UAS is the uncrewed aerial systems equivalent, covering visual line of sight operation with a mixed reality headset and beyond line of sight work, emergencies training and mission rehearsal, with multiple units networkable for collective training.

The services half divides into three. Training Solutions is an ISO 9001 accredited end-to-end offering covering training analysis, design and development, delivery, assurance, collective training and human performance. Technical Services provides equipment capability development and assessment, integrated test and evaluation and acceptance planning, programme and requirements management, full spectrum effects planning, concept and strategy development, mission data and electromagnetic warfare expertise, and specialist security services. White Force is the exercise control and adversary capability, a standing team of subject matter experts who build realistic opposition and run demanding collective training events. The collective training team has delivered more than 400 large-scale exercises for the RAF.

Work spans air, land, maritime, cyber and space. The company holds the UK MOD's Common Aviation Situational Awareness contract for Joint Helicopter Command, extending GECO across Apache, Chinook, Merlin and Wildcat after winning the earlier Helicopter Cockpit Situational Awareness Tool contract in 2018. It has a GECO contract extension with the Royal Jordanian Air Force, delivered GECO to the Red Arrows for their 2026 display season, and supports composite air operations training for the Multinational Helicopter Training Centre. Inzpire has won two Queen's Awards for innovation.