Phil Brown is the Principal Adviser for Maritime Autonomy at the UK MOD’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl). He provides technical leadership and guidance for the development of Maritime Autonomous Systems across the Defence Enterprise. Documented as a named contributor to the UK RAS 2020 National Strategy, part of the writing team for the RN’s MAS Campaign plan and a co-author for the Common Maturity Framework, Phil also works extensively across the NATO and the five eyes community. He is currently the Chief Architect for the ASW Barrier Smart Defence Initiative (SDI) and has received an international award for his collaboration and leadership within The Technical Cooperation Partnership (TTCP).

An Engineering Physics graduate, Phil joined Dstl in 2005 following a successful career in offshore survey, academia and industrial laboratories. Broadly experienced he has a wide ranging scientific and technical grounding for directing the development of innovative military equipment in this field. During his time in Dstl Phil has provided technical leadership on variety projects including; Autonomous Systems Underpinning Research (ASUR), Autonomy Incubator, Unmanned Systems and Remote Systems. Within these activities he founded the Defence Autonomy Research Collaboration (DARC) Event, an annual conference to capture the breadth of defence autonomous systems science and technology.