Really?
Are the examples given actually patentable? That rucksack power supply seems obvious for anyone who needs a rucksack mounted power supply. Etc.
British military boffins are letting world+dog use bright ideas they devised for, among other things, compact antennas, military bouncy castles and a dog-training programme. The Defence and Science Technology Laboratory holds the Ministry of Defence's IP portfolio. The agency announced earlier this week that it is extending …
The only item mentioned that seems plausibly patentable is the antenna. But there seems, in the UK and US at least, to be a vast gulf in the way the patents process is supposed to work (diligent and properly sceptical research by subject matter experts well-paid to do an important job) and the apparent reality (toss coin—unless applicant is major, wealthy corporation in which toss coin till it comes up heads).
You can find a silicon antenna on a Raspberry Pi 3. It is the pale grey rectangle on the corner opposite the Ethernet connector with "Made in the UK" written underneath. The basic principle is a row of field effect transistors. Make the first N transistors conductive and leave the rest high resistance. This gives you an antenna with a variable length suitable for a wide range of frequencies.
Maybe their lack lustre method of pawning off the patents is evidence that dstl is no longer that innovative? The privatisation of DERA into QinetiQ/DSTL just drained the ship, combined with the Uber low pay, and the fact that we no longer have limited horizons and strong allegiance to queen and country, means they all go to work for successful US based firms.
Do DSTL just do PoCs to buy foreign kit?